JULIE & JULIA

I am going to make two somewhat contradictory statements. First, I am not a big fan of Nora Ephron. Second, I loved Julie & Julia.

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Nora Ephron is responsible for two movies that I absolutely cannot stand—Sleepless in Seattle and You've Got Mail. Part of that may have to do with the fact that they both "star" (non-) actor Tom Hanks. Part of that may have to do with the fact that they are corny "romantic comedies" filled with clichés. Ephron just doesn't seem to know when to quit. Or, at least she didn't in the 1990s.

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Julie & Julia avoids both of those problems. First, it doesn't "star" Tom Hanks. Rather, it stars the rather charming Meryl Streep as Julia Child. Amy Adams as Julie Powell isn't as successful in her role as I would have hoped, but she brings a fair amount of likability to the character. Second, although some of the corny, clichéd romance is still present, it is pushed to the background, which allows for the "relationship" between Julie and Julia, as well as their relationships to food, to be highlighted.

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My guess is that Ephron was reined in by her source material. Since she is working from two books in adapting her screenplay—Julie & Julia by Julie Powell and My Life in France by Julia Child with Alex Prud'homme—some of her own authorial voice is curtailed by the voices of the authors that she is inspired by and borrows from. This seems to have worked well.

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Another thing that works well is that Ephron allows the characters of Julie Powell and Julia Child to speak about Ephron herself. It feels similar to what Woody Allen does when he directs a film and has a male protagonist that is obviously a "stand in" for himself. There is a self-referentiality that engages the characters, the writer-director, and the audience in order that each is satisfied. There is a thread of connection that binds Ephron to Julie and Julia, and, by extension, binds us to all three.

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And let's not forget about the passion for food and cooking that borders on culinary pornography. The camera allows the dishes to shine. If it hadn't been for my giant bucket of faux-buttered, semi-stale theatre popcorn, then I would have been salivating through the entire movie and attempting to quiet my rumbling stomach.

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I was inspired* enough to go home and make my own flavored butters for dinner, with the help of the child (as pictured above).

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*Additional inspirations for trying to make some of our own food from "scratch," such as butter from heavy cream and seasonings, included (1) "Out of the Kitchen, Onto the Couch: How American Cooking became a Spectator Sport, and What We Lost along the Way" by Michael Pollan in the Sunday 02 August 2009 issue of The New York Times Magazine; (2) my expanding waistline; and (3) my astonishment at the nutritional information concerning a hamburger I ate.**

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**The A.1.® Peppercorn Burger at Red Robin was described on their menu in glowing terms:

Sizzling, hickory-smoked bacon, melted Pepper-Jack cheese, A.1.® peppercorn spread, crispy onion straws, and tomatoes on an onion bun. It's a taste explosion!

It was an awesome burger. However, Red Robin also saw fit to include a laminated nutritional information card on our table. There I discovered that this burger also contained 1433 calories (half of what I need for an entire day) and 5619 milligrams of sodium. That level of sodium, while providing much of the flavor (and probably most of my enjoyment), is two to three times the recommended daily intake, and easily twice that of any other burger that Red Robin serves.

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As they say, knowledge is power. Although the A.1.® Peppercorn Burger was a spectacular burger of salt and seasoning, savory beyond compare, I don't think I will be having another one anytime soon. I would prefer to live to see another day and to see what Nora Ephron comes up with next.