Julie and Julia

Julia is Julia Childs, played by Meryl Streep.  I had heard the name, but didn't know anything about her.  It turns out she was a tall lady with a Lady Bracknell-ish speaking voice who revolutionised cooking in the US back in the 1950's & 60's with her book on French cookery and a tv show.  

Julie is Julie Powell, played by Amy Adams.  She is a miserable office-worker, dealing with claims from victims of 9/11 and being outshone by all her Sex & The City style girlfriends.  Despite having a fear of eggs, she decides to cook her way through every single Julia Childs recipe and blog about it.

The two stories run in parallel and all the reviews I've read say that for this reason it is only half a good film.  They go on to say this is because Meryl outshines Amy as an actress.  But that's rather unfair.  The problem is that with Julia, you've got a strong woman who served in the OSS in China during the war, went to live in France with her diplomat husband (played very well by Stanley Tucci) and pursued her career with tenacity.

Julie is... well... she's unremarkable.  Streep's Julia does stuff, Adams' Julie really doesn't.

So I'd agree that half of this film is worthwhile.  The rest is okay, but unmemorable.  And the big ending you'll be waiting for falls as flat as a damp souffle, due to that unfortunate beast named reality stepping in and doing a big poo on the denouement.  5/10