As per its punchy subhead, this is “based on two true stories,” parallel stories of feminist self-determination, set half a century apart, then and now. One focuses on Julie Powell, self-made blogger, daily chronicler of a year-long project to cook her way through volume one of Mastering the Art of French Cooking, 365 days, 524 recipes. The other focuses on the American co-author of the aforesaid cookbook, Julia Child. Though each story in turn gets equal time, back and forth, the film suffers from a built-in imbalance. The women, no need to be overly polite about it, are not equal pioneers. The one — the earlier — the pathfinder — was, in her own humorously grandiose phrase, out to “change the world,” while the other — the follower — the copier — the coattail rider — was only out to carve herself a niche in the blogosphere and eventually the publishing world. Nor are the players equal. Amy Adams is an agreeable light-comedy actress (not so agreeable a heavier actress), whose Julie has been drastically watered down from the real McCoy, the real Powell, evidently out of primary concern that everyone should like her and every woman identify with her. Meryl Streep, meanwhile, is nothing less than the prima donna of contemporary American cinema; and her Julia, far from a bland Everywoman, is a one-of-a-kind: a stylized self-parodist parodied to perfection, but softened and molded into a rounded, humanized, full-service screen character. We want at all times, not just half the time, to be with Julia; and we should probably be grateful to writer-director Nora Ephron, whose title comes from Powell’s blown-up blog but whose source material expanded to encompass Child’s autobiography, that we have Julia-slash-Meryl even half the time. It could have been less. Stanley Tucci, Chris Messina, Jane Lynch. (2009) — Duncan Shepherd
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