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Ric was out of town, so my sister and I had the perfect opportunity to go see Julie and Julia. It's all the rage, apparently, although I have to admit that it's probably geared towards a slightly older audience.. like people who actually used to watch her show. My familiarity with Julia Child is limited, almost completely, to Cliff Huxtable's impressions of her on The Cosby show. I always loved those impressions. Anyway, if you haven't heard, it's two parallel stories - that of Julia Child finding her niche in the cooking world and of Julie Powell attempting to cook all of Child's French cuisine recipes in one year.

The parallels between the stories are fine and dandy, but it's quite obvious that the story of Julia is much more interesting, because she has such a spirit of liveliness and fun. Her jokes, her letters, the way she makes fun of herself, and the great attitude are infectious. I thought Meryl Streep was great, and Julia was just so endearing. I didn't necessarily laugh out loud at any point in the movie, though. Julia and her story are interesting and pleasant to watch. However, the older members of the audience were laughing up a storm, so maybe it's a generational thing. I actually appreciated learning some things about her life history and what it took for her to become successful.

Julia's story is interesting, in a different way. It doesn't quite ring genuine, maybe because of the scenes between Julie and her unlikeable friends, which seem like such cliches, even if they may have been real people. But despite that, I like the idea of someone in a tiny kitchen who works a full-time job striving to learn new things and accomplish a pretty significant goal. Was it riveting? Not quite, but it was fine.

The things that shine in the movie are Meryl Streep, Stanley Tucci, the clothes, the food, and the Paris setting. I have heard several men complain about the self-absorbed nature of Julie Powell, but I really didn't think that was too bothersome, considering that she learned her lesson over time. It's a nice summer movie that's most likely good for an older audience of women, but also enjoyable as a light couple hours of entertainment for anyone else.