Julie & Julia

A typically slick Nora Ephron vehicle, Julie & Julia tells the concurrent stories of blogger Julie Powell (Amy Adams) and famed chef Julia Child (Meryl Streep) – as writer/director Ephron details the latter’s efforts at establishing herself as a professional chef during the 1940s and also the former’s attempts at cooking the latter’s various recipes decades later. Though the transitions between the timelines is never quite as seamless as one might’ve liked, Ephron does an effective job of initially drawing the viewer into the proceedings by establishing (and emphasizing) an almost uniformly likeable collection of characters – with Adams’ and Streep’s compelling work matched by a top-notch supporting cast that includes Chris Messina, Mary Lynn Rajskub, and Stanley Tucci. It’s subsequently rather easy to overlook Ephron’s reliance on overtly cute directorial choices (eg Talking Heads’ “Psycho Killer” accompanies Julie’s efforts at killing a lobster), although there does reach a point at which the relentlessly bland atmosphere becomes increasingly difficult to stomach. Even Streep inevitably falls victim to Ephron’s one-note modus operandi, as the actress’ take on Child – so entertaining and engaging at the outset – has been infused with progressively cartoonish attributes that slowly-but-surely drain the character of its authenticity. There’s a distinct feeling of repetitiveness and stagnancy that comes to define the majority of Julie & Julia‘s bloated midsection, thus ensuring that the viewer has lost interest in the central characters’ various endeavors long before the admittedly uplifting finale rolls around. The final result is a sporadically watchable piece of work that’s about on the same level as Ephron’s underwhelming last two movies (2000’s Lucky Numbers and 2005’s Bewitched), which is a shame, really, given the caliber of the cast and the promising nature of the film’s set-up.

** out of ****