JULIE AND JULIA

Directed by Nora Ephron
Starring
Meryl Streep
Amy Adams
Stanley Tucci
Chris Messina
Linda Emond
Jane Lynch

Music by Alexandre Desplat
Running time 123 minutes
Country United States
Language English



Julie & Julia (2009) is an American comedy-drama film written and directed by Nora Ephron starring Meryl Streep, Stanley Tucci, Amy Adams, and Chris Messina. The film contrasts the life of The French Chef Julia Child in the early years of her culinary career with the life of young New Yorker Julie Powell, who aspires to cook all 524 recipes in Child's cookbook in 365 days, a challenge she described on her popular blog that would make her a published author.

In 2002, Julie Powell is a young writer with an unpleasant job at the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation's call center, where she answers telephone calls from victims of the September 11 attacks and members of the general public complaining about the LMDC's controversial plans for rebuilding the World Trade Center. To do something she enjoys, she decides to cook every recipe in Mastering the Art of French Cooking (1961) and blogs to motivate herself and document her progress.
Woven into the story of Powell's time in Queens in the early 2000s is the story of Child's time in Paris throughout the 1950s, where she attends Le Cordon Bleu to learn French cooking and begins collaborating on a book about French cooking for American housewives. The plot highlights similarities in the challenges encountered by both of them. Both women get much support from their husbands, except when Powell's husband becomes fed up with her excessive devotion to her hobby and leaves her for a short time.
Eventually, Powell's blog is featured in a story published in The New York Times, after which her project begins to receive the attention of journalists, literary agents, publishers, and a dismissive response from Child herself. Although Child's book is rejected by Houghton Mifflin, it is accepted and published by Alfred A. Knopf. The last scene shows Powell and her husband visiting Child's kitchen at the Smithsonian Institution and Powell in the same kitchen receiving a first print of her cookbook and celebrating the event with her husband.