Daily Review - Julie And Julia

I just finished watching Julie & Julia, which came hot on the heels of finishing the book last week.  If you enjoy cooking and blogging (and for those of you that have been following, I like both) it's an enjoyable story.  Back in 2002, Julie Powell decided to add something to her life by cooking her way through Julia Child's recipe book - Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Vol. 1.  She blogged her exploits over the year of the project and got both a book and movie deal out of it.  Not bad right?

It has to be said, it's a fascinating concept - dedicating yourself (and by association your spouse and friends) to a project of this nature.  I'm just trying to picture what my husband would say if I were to put forth such an insane suggestion.  It definitely drove home the point that anything is possible with the support of those around you though!  I found myself appreciating Julie Powell's plight, even though I didn't necessarily find her the most lovable character that I've ever read.

It's almost a rule of thumb that the book is better than the movie, but this may be the exception for me.  I don't know much about Julia Child.  Perhaps it's because I grew up in England and never really got the exposure to her culinary talents that American households did.  Whatever the reason though, what I loved about this movie was the exposure to her character that wasn't fully furnished by Julie Powell's book.  Meryl Streep, as always, provides a wonderfully lively portrayal of the character and I found myself giggling at her on-screen antics.  (I will admit that something about the voice of Julie Child made me think of Mrs. Doubtfire though).  Amy Adams, on the other hand, gave Julie Powell a certain charm that I think she lacked in the book.  Essentially the movie really tied Julie and Julia together very neatly and put it all in perspective for me.

As a blogger, the thing I identified with most though were Julie's musings about who was actually reading her blog.  When I write a post, such as this one, I always wonder who will end up reading it.  I write about things that I find interesting without knowing whether anybody else that reads it will share that interest....or even if anybody else will read it at all.  We have the advantages these days of stat counters that will tell me some person in Kansas, or New York, or Spain, read my blog for 3 minutes yesterday, although it still doesn't tell me anything about that person.  Just like Julie I guess, I publish my musings into cyberspace and it connects me to others, even if I never know anything else about that person.  That in itself is weird but kinda cool.

While I may not be boiling a calf's foot to make aspic, like Julie did, I'm still hoping somebody gets a kick out of something that I have to say and I appreciate all of you that are reading about it.  :)