Contrast that with The Devil Wears Prada - even a smaller role for Streep than Christie's in Away from Her - where many of Streep's big scenes are in the second half, and it made up for the smaller screen time in its impact.
Having said that, each race makes its own rules, which can be broken, and Streep in this role might do it.
This message has been edited. Last edited by: seanflynn,
Streep is in half of the film...in time, not parts. It isn't she is in the first half and then missing from the second. The stories go back and forth between Adams and Streep.
Posts: 323 | Location: Burbank, CA | Registered: September 20, 2003
I was just going to say, let's see the film and then make the calls on Streep and her time in the film, but thanks VegasMovieMan for the clarification as well!
2010 Oscars FYC:
Lead Actor - Joseph Gordon-Levitt, (500) Days of Summer Lead Actress - Meryl Streep, Julie & Julia Supporting Actor - Christoph Waltz, Inglourious Basterds Supporting Actress - Mo'Nique, Precious: Based on the Novel "Push" by Sapphire Original Screenplay - Scott Neustadter & Michael H. Weber, (500) Days of Summer
Posts: 4920 | Location: Why Do You Want To Know? | Registered: November 21, 2006
Just right: "Julie & Julia" a charming, pleasant experience By Julia Terruso
Starring: Meryl Streep, Amy Adams, Stanley Tucci Directed by: Nora Ephron In theaters: August 7
An absolute treat. That's the perfect way to describe "Julie & Julia."
In Ephron's eighth go-around as a writer-director, "Julie & Julia" features two heart-warming stories and hundreds of mouth-watering recipes. The story centers the lives of world-renowned chef Julia Child (Streep) - from the 1950s to the publishing of her first book - and Julie Powell (Adams), who wrote a blog in 2003 about cooking her way through Child's "The Art of French Cooking Vol. 1" in just 365 days.
Streep is marvelous with her soaring high-pitched Child voice and tender-as-a-good-fillet mannerisms. She captures the complexities behind a woman the world saw in one dimension as little more than a bubbly TV cook.
But Child had her personal tragedies as well, and Streep captures those, too. She struggled to have children and also boasted a not-so-perfect motherly side. She cursed like a sailor, and in one of her cookbooks, she describes the perfect consistency of a noodle as "like a stiff ****."
Adams dazzles as Powell, a woman who worked a dead-end job in New York City and was adrift in life before deciding to cook her way through Julia's book and chronicle the experience. She's charming both in success and in failure. In one scene, she throws a food tantrum after failing to cook an aspic - a sort of beef jelly concoction. You root for her on the exhausting ride through weight gain, financial difficulties, and recipe disasters and triumphs.
The two women have both an inner strength, and one that comes from their loving husbands. The chemistry between Streep and her on-screen hubby (Tucci) is unexpected and irresistible like two ingredients you weren't sure would work but wind up as perfect compliments.
Adam's self-indulgent friends are a little over the top and awkward in a movie that otherwise feels quite genuine. The ending sequence also misses the mark with its anti-climactic nature, but it proves appropriate, given the sort of peaceful plateau both women wind up at.
Above all else, the film is extremely visually appealing - from the Parisian streets to the homemade bruschetta. Plan to eat a heavy dinner before, or have reservations following the film because one thing is for sure: this film will make you hungry if nothing else
To Sean Flynn. Such a shame Julie Christie did not win and also for Afterglow. She was far superior to the other nominees. I doubt that screen time plays that much a factor. Campaigning she does not do (good, ethical and professional for her!) unlike the winners those two dreadfully unfair years.
Originally posted by andruccio: To Sean Flynn. Such a shame Julie Christie did not win and also for Afterglow. She was far superior to the other nominees. I doubt that screen time plays that much a factor. Campaigning she does not do (good, ethical and professional for her!) unlike the winners those two dreadfully unfair years.
The problem with "Afterglow" was it was barely released in the U.S. while "As Good As It Gets" was a big hit and a best picture nominee. Despite Julie Christie's critics awards she was barely in the race and Helen Hunt's biggest competition was likely Judi Dench for "Mrs. Brown".
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Posts: 27141 | Location: Phoenix, AZ | Registered: February 02, 2003
I expect a bowlful of food analogies sprinkled throughout these critic morsels. Not that I would ever attempt to churn such spicy bad habits.
---- OSCAR FYC: Best Picture - "Up" Best Actor - Michael Stuhlbarg, "A Serious Man" Best Actress - Saoirse Ronan, "Lovely Bones" Best Supporting Actor - Christoph Waltz, "Basterds" Best Original Screenplay - "Up"
Posts: 1924 | Location: Right behind you. | Registered: December 07, 2007
I have to completely agree with this person's review of Streep's performance. It is truly a charming performance. Those who say they usually can see her wheels turning will be challenged here.
Posts: 323 | Location: Burbank, CA | Registered: September 20, 2003
Nora Ephron serves up a mixture of talent, humor, and grace in a delicious new comedy
Ephron, whose most lauded screenplay until now was 1989’s When Harry Met Sally, is in her element with Julia and Paul. Their relationship is one of the movie’s joys. When Julia’s book is rejected by the original publisher or when Paul gets worked over by Cold War witch hunters in Washington, each comes home to a partner who not only understands and consoles, but also matters more than anything or anyone else in the world. Buoyed by humor and deliciously sexual, the Childs’ decades-long love affair feels utterly convincing, not least because Tucci and Streep capture the most elusive chemistry—that of people who are deeply intimate yet never lose their capacity to surprise each other. And all this plays out with a much more compelling realism than the romances in two of Ephron’s biggest hits, Sleepless in Seattle and You’ve Got Mail. Julie & Julia isn’t perfect, but it’s the Ephron movie that I’ve been waiting for—one as smart and vigorously alive as those legendary essays that put her on the map.
The Broadcast Critics are basically a joke. Not a single one is considered worthy of being Metacritic listed or qualified for membership of the National Society of Film Critics. So I wouldn't take their rating seriously. Better than a kick in the head I guess, but not remotely evidence that this is some sort of great film.
<<Streep Fan Posted July 12, 2009 06:49 PM Hide Post quote: Originally posted by Alc:
quote: Originally posted by MysteriousRent:
quote: Originally posted by Alc: Um... who is Julia Terruso?
She apparently writes reviews for the Syracuse University student newspaper.
