Love & Food
Julie & Julia
Review by Ross Anthony

Love and food, the basics of life, two passions common to nearly everyone on the planet, the film offers them up like hors d'oeuvres never ceasing to circle the room. It's gentle, tender, warm, and sprinkled generously with tasty bits of humor.

During the year preceding her 30th birthday Julie challenges herself to cook every recipe in a Julia Child cook book, she blogs about each meal. Intermittently, this story is balanced by Julia Child's Parisian experience -- the origin story of her fame. Streep's portrayal of the chef-icon smokes! And Tucci endears as her encouraging hubby. They make a charming couple with an on screen love that'll melt audiences, seasoned with the occasional pinch of sizzling passion. Child turns out to be quite an interesting character on her own. Just for fun, filmmakers chose to include an old clip from SNL, Dan Ackroyd's cutting imitation of Julia will crack you up.

Julie and hubby have a challenging love story of their own. Amy Adams and Chris Messina make for another cute couple. Still most of the cooking is done in the kitchen. Foodies and non-foodies alike should enjoy this oven-warm film. That said, I may be biased. I felt like I was watching my life. My gf is quite a foodie herself, cute, cooking, blogging, obsessing.

She loved the film, and I certainly enjoyed it as well, however, I'd have made a change in the recipe. The film introduces us to Julie in her job as a hotline operator, offering assistance to those immediately affected by 911 in New York. Though peripheral to the main story, my curiosity had been piqued. I would have liked to see more of this integrated in the script, especially how Julie's cooking success affected her confidence and positiveness in the workplace, with her callers.

Interestingly enough, this film about food and marriage is really a marriage of two film projects based on books: "My Life in France" by Julia Child and (the other) "Julie and Julia" by Julie Powell.

Julie & Julia

-- Books by Author/Illustrator Ross Anthony --


  • Julie & Julia. Copyright © 2009.
  • Starring Meryl Streep, Amy Adams, Stanley Tucci, Chris Messina, Linda Emond. Screenplay by Nora Ephron. Directed by Nora Ephron. Produced by Nora Ephron, Laurence Mark, Amy Robinson, Eric Steel at Sony Pictures Entertainment.

Grade..........................A- (3/4)


chili4 special olympians
power5 ra hforh radiop
Copyright © 1998-2023 Ross Anthony, Author - Speaker - Solo World Circumnavigator In addition to reviewing films and interviewing celebs at HollywoodReportCard.com, traveling the world, composing great music, motivational speaking, Mr. Anthony also runs his own publishing company in the Los Angeles area. While traversing the circumference of the planet writing books and shooting documentaries, Mr. Anthony has taught, presented for, worked &/or played with locals in over 30 countries & 100 cities (Nairobi to Nagasaki). He's bungee-jumped from a bridge near Victoria Falls, wrestled with lions in Zimbabwe, crashed a Vespa off a high mountain road in Taiwan, and ridden a dirt bike across the States (Washington State to Washington DC). To get signed books ("Rodney Appleseed" to "Jinshirou") or schedule Ross to speak check out: www.RossAnthony.com or call 1-800-767-7186. Go into the world and inspire the people you meet with your love, kindness, and whatever it is you're really good at. Check out books by Ross Anthony. Rand() functions, Pho chicken soup, rollerblading, and frozen yogurt (w/ blueberries) also rock! (Btw, rand is short for random. It can also stand for "Really Awkward Nutty Dinosaurs" -- which is quite rand, isn't it?) Being alive is the miracle. Special thanks to Ken Kocanda, HAL, Jodie Keszek, Don Haderlein, Mom and Pops, my family, R. Foss, and many others by Ross Anthony. Galati-FE also deserves a shout out. And thanks to all of you for your interest and optimism. Enjoy great films, read stirring novels, grow.


Last Modified: Tuesday, 04-Aug-2009 22:09:22 PDT