Julie & Julia is an amazing and powerful movie that shows two distinct women's passion on food. The movie successfully creates a plot that has two parallel story line based on the life of Julia Child and Julie Powell. Surprisingly, the movie based its plot on two true stories and it truly shows the power of food in changing people's lives.
Both Julie & Julia found their "haven" and peace in food. Their lives were essentially nothing before they started to embrace in cooking. Julie Powell had a horrible job, and the only thing that makes her happy is food. Julia Child, in the other hand, was completely clueless about her life. Her husband was assigned a job in France, and she has nothing to do. However, through cooking, both Julie & Julia were able to find freedom and joy. The most unique moral of this story is that there's no such thing as being too late to follow your passion or hobby. Julia Child, who was probably in her 40's found her passion. She didn't even know how to boil an egg, however, she followed her passion and started cooking. Julie Powell was an average American woman that felt like she hits a dead end in her life. She hates her job and her life is full of misery. She started a blog and challenged herself to cook every recipe in Julia Child's cookbook and find happiness through cooking and writing. This portrays a powerful message, that people need to follow their passion regardless of their age or physical ability.
I love how the movie shows food not only as simply the solution to Julie's & Julia's life, but also as a double-edge sword. In Julie's story, there are conflicts that are caused by food and her blogs. She had a huge fight with her husband because of her sensitive attitude that is caused by her own cooking blog, and also the problems that Julia Child faced regarding her cooking book. Most of the time in modern society, food has always been portrayed as a solution to everything. When people are facing problems, food makes them happy. However, this movie portrays food beyond that social norm. Food is not simply a solution, but it is a lifestyle. Both Julie & Julia embrace food as apart of their lives. Although they face conflicts through their passion in cooking, they rebound and keep on going because they are in love with food.
Lastly, I love how the movie shows their emotion. Hands down, Meryl Streep is an amazing actress. In the movie, even though her voice is so high-pitched and annoying, I can truly see her passion in cooking. She shows it through her facial expressions and the way she talks about food. SImilar to Amy Adams who act as Julie, her facial expression while she cooks is so genuine. I love how both characters talk about food throughout the movie because I can truly see their passion in it. Overall, the acting in Julie & Julia is fabulous and there are powerful messages shown through the movie.
