Julie & Julia

Director: Nora Ephron Nora Ephron

Overview

Nora Ephron adapts Julie Powell's autobiographical book Julie and Julia: 365 Days, 524 Recipes, 1 Tiny Apartment Kitchen with this Columbia Pictures production starring Amy Adams as an amateur chef who decides to cook every recipe in a cookbook from acclaimed celebrity chef Julia Child (played by Meryl Streep) in order to chronicle it in a blog over the course of a year. Streep's Devil Wears Prada co-star Stanley Tucci re-teams with the actress as Child's husband.

Product Details

Release Date:	12/08/2009
UPC:	0043396292291
Original Release:	2009
Rating:	PG-13
Source:	SONY PICTURES HOME ENTERTAINMT
Region Code:	1
Presentation:	[Wide Screen]
Sound:	[Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround]
Language:	English
Time:	2:03:00
Sales rank:	20,708

Special Features

Closed Caption; Secret ingredients: creating Julia & Julia; Commentary with writer/director Nora Ephron

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Meryl Streep	Julia Child
Amy Adams	Julie Powell
Chris Messina	Eric Powell
Stanley Tucci	Paul Child
Linda Emond	Simone Beck
Helen Carey	Louisette Bertholle
Mary Lynn Rajskub	Sarah
Jane Lynch	Dorothy McWilliams
Joan Juliet Buck	Madame Brassart
Crystal Noelle	Ernestine
Vanessa Ferlito	Cassie
Casey Wilson	Regina
Jillian Bach	Annabelle
Andrew Garman	John O'Brien
Michael Brian Dunn	Ivan Cousins
Remak Ramsay	John McWilliams
Diane Kagan	Phila McWiliams
Pamela Holden Stewart	Instructor at Le Cordon Bleu,Instructor at Le Cordon Bleu
Jeff Brooks	Minister
Brooks Ashmanskas	Mr. Misher
Frances Sternhagen	Irma Rombauer
Eric Sheffer Stevens	Tim
Brian Avers	Garth
Kacie Sheik	Annette
Megan Byrne	Woman at the Party
Deborah Rush	Avis De Voto
Helen Coxe	Dorothy De Santillana
Amanda Hesser	Herself
Maryann Urbano	Dinner Guest
Simon Jutras	Dinner Guest
Felicity Jones	Dinner Guest,Mailman
Meg Kettell	Simca's Concierge
Stephen Bogardus	Scott McLeod
Byron Jennings	Houghton Mifflin Executive
Kelly AuCoin	Houghton Mifflin Executive
Richard Bekins	Houghton Mifflin Executive
Luc Palun	Chestnut Vendor
Rémy Roubakha	Oyster Man
Marceline Hugot	Madame Bernheim
Erin Dilly	Judith Jones
Robert Emmet Lunney	Bill Koshland
Jeff Talbott	Interrogator
Johnny Sparks	Interrogator
Tom Galantich	American Ambassador
Allyn Burrows	Waiter in Paris Café
Julia Prud'homme	Bridge Teacher
Dimitri Radochevitch	Fish Monger
Emmanuel Suarez	Baker
Christelle Cornil	Baker's Wife
Françoise Lebrun	Baker's Mother
Teddy Bergman	Cobb Salad Waiter
Jean-Pierre Becker	Fruit Store Owner
Mark Wilkins	Butcher
Francesco David	Butcher
Jamie Hall	Cheese Guy
Roy William Gardner	Exhibit Guest
Dianne Dreyer	American Housewife
Evalyn B. Taucher	Hat-Making Teacher
Mary Kay Place	Voice of Julie's Mom,Julie's Mom
George Bartenieff	Chef Max Bugnard
Francis Dumaurier	Voices
Nora Ephron	Actor
Linda Edmond	Actor
Alexandre Desplat	Composer

Technical Credits

Nora Ephron

Julie Powell

Julia Child

Alex Prud'homme

Nora Ephron	Director,Screenwriter,Producer
Laurence Mark	Producer
Amy Robinson	Producer
Eric Steel	Producer
Scott Rudin	Executive Producer,Producer
Donald J. Lee Jr.	Executive Producer,Producer
Dana Stevens	Executive Producer
Francine Maisler	Casting
Kathy Driscoll-Mohler	Casting,Casting
Peter Buccosi	Stunts
Julie Powell	Screenwriter
Julia Child	Screenwriter
Alex Prud'homme	Screenwriter
John Bernard	Producer
Dianne Dreyer	Producer
Ron Bochar	Sound Effects
David Boulton	Sound Effects
Lee Dichter	Sound Effects
J.J. Sacha	Producer

Editorial Reviews

Everybody needs inspiration. Julie Powell wanted to be a writer, but not until she challenged herself to make every recipe in Julia Child's culinary bible Mastering the Art of French Cooking in one year -- and blogged about it -- did she find her voice. Her memoir about that year, Julie & Julia, comes to the big screen thanks to writer/director Nora Ephron, a filmmaker who was in dire need of some inspiration. The movie stars a pair of formidably talented actresses: Amy Adams and Meryl Streep. Adams plays Powell, an English lit grad who struggles through her stressful government job fielding phone calls from people who are having medical problems because of 9/11. Cooking provides her with her only form of anxiety relief aside from her devoted husband (Chris Messina), who suggests she combine her love of preparing food with her desire to write. He sets her up with a blog, and she begins her quest to perfect beef bourguignon, poached eggs, and aspic -- and to share her journey with the world. As she learns more and more about Julia Child (Streep), a former government employee herself, the beloved chef becomes Julie's personal hero. Ephron shifts back and forth between Julie's story, and a biopic of Julia Child during the time she and her devoted husband (Stanley Tucci) lived in Paris. During that period, she learned to cook, met her future co-authors, and created the book that would save Julie four decades later. It will come as a surprise to just about nobody that Meryl Streep is flawless as the distinctively voiced celebrity chef. Streep not only masters Child's unique cadence and idiosyncratic tonal shifts -- elements that made her easy to satirize -- but makes them seem utterly natural. She and Stanley Tucci make for just about the happiest couple imaginable -- supporting, loving, and generous. Their story isn't terribly dramatic -- in fact, the whole film has a noticeable lack of conflict -- but it's so much fun to watch them interact that the whole movie works because of their remarkable charm. However, Streep and Tucci aren't the only cast members capable of winning an audience's affection. Adams communicates Julie's intense need to accomplish her task with such effortlessness that conventional drama feels like an intrusion -- a fact underscored by the movie's only dull stretch, a 15-minute subplot where Julie's marriage goes through a rough patch. This kind of unapologetic feel-good movie doesn't need a bogus threat to happiness like that -- it's more than enough for us to appreciate how much Julia fills Julie with meaning and purpose. It's that very meaning and purpose that have been lacking from Nora Ephron's recent work. Bewitched and Lucky Numbers were joyless comedies that lacked her best qualities. But both Julie and Julia turn out to be fabulous muses for Ephron, who has fashioned a script full of gentle wit and affection, and directed it with warmth and confidence. This is a slight movie, to be sure, but it's a loving one made with care and purpose. It's not revolutionary like Julia Child's book, but it's as enjoyable as a soufflé.