Julie & Julia (Giftset With Cookery Book) [DVD] [2009] (DVD)

Bon Appetit! 'Streep ...' mused comedienne Joan Rivers. 'Sounds like something you catch.' Well, in this delightful film, Meryl Streep is a superb catch. As a character actress this woman is superb - she really takes a lot of beating. Always watchable, in this she is enchanting. Never descending into caricature, she surpasses even herself as the angular, eccentric and completely unstoppable celebrity chef Julia Child. This is a beguiling story of two women separated by an accident of historical timing - and technology. Had they ever met, they might have overcome their slight differences and become firm friends. For this is a film about kindred spirits and the genius that drives those who know how to cook - or are prepared to learn - and to produce wonders from the gas stove. The story of JULIE & JULIA has been very well summarised several times on here, so it doesn't need to be done again. Suffice it to say that the simple idea of an office girl stirring, frying, baking and roasting her way through 'Mastering the Art of French Cookery' is developed and played for all it's worth - with a cast so expert and so engaging, and so finely directed, that the film is nothing short of virtuosic. The Paris and Queens backdrops are beautifully lit and shot (loads of stunning Edward Hopper influences in the American parts) and all in all this has to be one of the best feelgood movies ever made. It's a triumph. (In some ways, JULIE & JULIA is similar to the other great cookery film, BABETTE'S FEAST, in that it recognises what a vital part of life the communal experience of eating for enjoyment can be. If you don't know Babette, rush to make her acquaintance. She and Julie and Julia would undoubtedly have had a lot in common.) Have fun watching this film, and enjoy it. And then have a go at boning your very own duck. Bon appetit! - as Julia would have said.

The Return of Mrs Doubtfire... Nice idea, lovely food, attractively shot, but ... Meryl Streep models herself on Robin Williams as Julia and over-cooks her performance, to the point where the smoke sets the alarm off and you have to vacate the room every time she appears.

A cooking's tale Meryl Streep is once again up to scratch in her latest composition as Julia Child, an American Chef, author and television personality who introduced French cuisine to Americans.The movie is inspired by Julia's book Mastering the Art of French Cooking. The movie makes a parallele between Julia's introduction into French cooking and Julie who sets herself on a challenge to cook every recipe in Julia's book for a year and write about it in a blog. This is a movie for food lovers, your taste buds will work hard, contemplating, Julie melting butter, cooking hollandaise sauce,baking chocolate cake, which makes you want to reach for the recipe book as soon as you step back home. Amy Adams makes Julie's character easy to identiy with, you will laugh, love, cook, cry, or loathe, through her culinary journey and leap for joy when she finally gets her break through.

Julie and Julia We only went to see this as we all wanted to go to the cinema as a family, only to find there wasn't much showing at the time. This film was a bit of a risk - but it was one that paid off. Julie and Julie is probably one of the nicest films we saw in 2009. Not loads of action but very sweet, happy, inspirational and quirky. My 13 year old daughter has also since become cooking obsessed and wants a career now in food. All that from a spontaneous family night out. We just rewatched the DVD thinking we wouldn't like it second time round. In fact, I liked it more. We laughed at so many bits as Meryl Streep is really funny in it. We walk around the house hissing 'Lobster killer' too. Great feel good film. Brilliant.

Not a film about food, more a film about people who like food Julie and Julia is somewhat of a bargain, what with there being two stories for the price of one; a 1950's period piece set for the most part in Paris with Meryl Streep apparently doing a good impression of famous (in America anyway) TV Cook Jula Child and a modern (ish) romcom about a women who has lost her way in life. Both leads, Meryl Streep and the excellent Amy Adams do a great job despite never having the chance to perform together and the whole shebang leaves you feeling pretty good about things. However there is a problem, despite its subject matter Julie and Julia is not a film about food, it's a film about people who like food. The best food films have managed to both entertain and make the viewer salivate, whether it be the food porn of Eden or Big Night's tale of jealousy, purity and the Timapano. Whist Julie and Julia is pretty good film in its own right, with some cracking performances, it fails as a foodie film because it doesn't understand that the ritual of preparation and consumption of food is just as universal and compulsive as a love story. There is nothing sexy about the food here; it's crude and lumpen and - unless a cavalcade of spitty, smacky noises turns you on - it isn't particularly consumed in a way that gets the old belly rumbling either. It doesn't really matter at the end of the day but it does represent an opportunity missed because had the film managed its foodie aspects a little more carefully it could have been a classic.