j & j

[mlr]

Last night, I went to see Julie & Julia.

I haven't read the Julie Powell blog or any of her books, and I haven't read 'My Life in France' by Juila Child. However, I can recognize a Nora Ephron blockbuster from the first zippy ping of the glockenspiel. The movie so much resembles Sleepless in Seattle and You've Got Mail that you wonder why she used Amy Adams instead of Meg Ryan, and Meryl Streep instead of Tom Hanks. The two locales, the two parallel lives, all of the lovable characters. In the Ephron universe, everyone is lovable, even if they have to be lovable curmudgeons like the big bad bitch who runs le Cordon Bleu. Scene after scene, we're treated for a third time to the same dialog, the same quizzical narration, the same plucky heroine. Not only does the entire movie bear a tired resemblance to its predecessors, scene after scene, the same cookie cutter is used. Over and over our heroines await some long expected response with anticipation and dread, with all the attendant and delightful joy, or even more delightful disappointment. Each blogger's comment, each phone call, each letter in the mail brings back all the drama of Meg Ryan opening yet another breathlessly awaited email from Hanks.

Toward the end of the film, Julie, after hearing indirectly that Julia is indifferent or worse to her endeavor, wonders if she was 'using' Julia Child. Well - yes you were, but nowhere as forcefully as Nora Ephron does in this movie. The Streep performance is everything you want it to be, yet somehow seems beside the point as the gears of the script take over. Julia Child was a genuine, lovable character who became a national treasure. Ephron should indeed worry, along with Julie, about appropriating her.