Here we have a fine example of a film that tries to be much more than it should, and doesn’t reach its potential in just about any way. It’s good they aimed so high, because at least when they fell short, it wasn’t a disaster. However, there’s almost not a whole review’s worth of commentary I can give on the film, so this is going to be interesting.

Meryl Streep is, well Meryl Streep. She can’t not be fabulous, and the fact that she can only really do as expected is a product of years of quality acting and brilliant performances. If nothing else, the film proves that she could have easily handled a feature length Julia Child biopic all by herself, and if that’s what you were thinking you’d get, you’re in for a bit of a disappointment. There’s plenty of her in here, and her storyline is infinitely more interesting than anything involving a Top Chef judge in her early blogging years, but it all serves as a flashback which never connects up to the main arc except through vague association. It’s like you’re watching a con man swindle you out of the film you really want to see, as you watch it, and that’s probably the biggest detriment to the whole enterprise.

Then we have Amy Adams. Again, a truly wonderful actress who has all the charisma we need in a protagonist… were her only competition other characters in her own timeline. Instead she has to hold her own against Julia Child, while never even getting a chance to meet her face to face. The whole situation is patently unfair, and it’s nothing that she does which flaws the experience, it’s more just that the writing team never fleshed her out very well on a character level. She has the misfortune of being based on a living person, and not somebody you’d want to get on the wrong side of. She felt very written to me, and I’m sure the real Julie Powell wouldn’t allow anything else to appear on screen, especially since the whole thing is based on a book she wrote. I’d bet quite a bit that Julie Powell is nothing like Amy Adams, especially in the way the hardships with her husband are dealt with, and the whole rose colored glasses perspective really turned me off of her storyline all together.

I almost wonder, if Meryl Streep and Stanley Tucci weren’t so good, would the movie hold together more cohesively? I doubt that would be the case, as the filmmakers never really decide which storyline deserves to dominate the movie. Two stories merged together has been done quite successfully in the past, as long as the confidence is there to promote one or the other, or at least trade off in importance. Instead the film goes for the middle of the road

and thus curtails each side. It also feels a bit too long, not so much from its overall run time, but because it doesn’t have a focus. What it lacks in focus, it makes up for in performance, and that’s the saving grace of the movie. Everyone is a joy to watch, and they all seem to be having the time of their lives doing it. I just wish the material afforded them opportunities to go further, to really express themselves, and to bring the whole movie up to what it could have been.

This really is a case of disappointment stemming from mediocrity. I really don’t think it’s excusable, given the talent involved, and though I enjoyed it for what it was, it should have been so much more. I can’t say it’s a bad film, and I also can’t give it a poor grade in good conscience, but that doesn’t mean it’s a rush out and see it immediately kind of movie. Wait for DVD, rent it, and enjoy it while chomping on popcorn and talking with friends. If it holds your interest longer than that, I hope you’ll be pleasantly surprised. Bon appetite!