9 reasons to see JulieandJulia

JulieandJulia is my recipe for a perfect chick flick. Grab your mom, your best friend or neighbor and go see it … and then go out to eat, talk and drink some wine.

Here are the nine ingredients:

1. It’s about women finding themselves in work, or as director Nora Ephron says, “finding their destiny.” It should be subtitled Mastering the Art of Being Somebody (other than someone’s spouse, mother, daughter).

Meryl Streep as Julia Child

2. It’s about getting a second lease (or a third) on life. I am amazed by the number of my friends who are trying to carve out new careers, especially as they enter the middle to last stage of their working lives. Julia Child doesn’t become a TV star until she was in her 50s after she’d published Mastering the Art of French Cooking.

3. It’s about cooking and eating, and their remarkable restorative powers. You know how a bad day can sometimes be rescued by a perfect tomato and basil sandwich, creamy mashed potato, Vietnamese pho, Thai green curry, even a great chick pea salad or a bloody bit of rare steak?

4. It’s about porn, food porn that is. The sole meunière scene is hot. And if you have never ever eaten or made Julia Child’s famous boeuf bourguignon you should. That’ll get you salivating. My mum in Australia used to cook it in a huge orange Le Creuset pot (she was way ahead of her time).

5. It’s about blogging. Say no more.

6. It’s funny. Meryl Street is delicious as Julia Child. And the writing by director Nora Ephron is wonderful. Ephron’s Heartburn and I Feel Bad about My Neck: And Other Thoughts on Being a Woman are two of my favorite books.

7. It’s about great women who just so happened to be called Julie. I always loved Julia Child because she was funny, instructive, inspiring and eerily like my grandmother, another tall Julia who taught French. The similarity stops there. My grandmother’s idea of cooking was bunging some mutton chops (even writing that makes me grimace and feel sick) in a pot of water and leaving them to cook a few hours. And Julie Powell? I was corroded by jealousy and envy when I discovered her blog.

8. It’s about great men who aren’t threatened by strong women with strong passions and ambition.

9. Julie and Julia did it! They found their inner somebodies. As Nora Ephron said, Julie Powell went from being a temp in a cubicle to being a writer. Julia Child went from being a file clerk to a legend in her own lunchtime.

You can get updates and invitations to special JulieandJulia screenings by following the movie on Twitter.

P.S. Who is Julia Child? Read about her life and Mastering the Art of French Cookery here.

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