(9) JULIE AND JULIA with Meryl Streep, Amy Adams, Stanley Tucci and Chris Messina. Directed by Nora Ephron. (Uptown Theatres).

DURING the 1950s, Julia Child (Meryl Streep) is a bored American housewife truly fed up with making hats as a hobby. Her husband, Paul (Stanley Tucci), recently got transferred to Paris and she is blown away by the city’s scenery. Paul suggests a couple of activities that might be time consuming and enjoyable to her, but to no avail.

Desperate to fill the emptiness within herself – with no reference to hunger – and fascinated by the French culture of cooking, her loving husband agrees to send her to culinary school to master the art of French cooking. Fifty-something years later, frustrated and emotionally drained from her job at a support call centre for victims of the 9/11 terror attack, Julie Powell (Amy Adams) decides to cook the 524 recipes from Child’s book, Mastering the Art of French Cooking.

She challenges herself to successfully complete all of the recipes over only 365 days from their small kitchen in lower Manhattan.

As a writer who never quite made it to the scene, she publishes her daily experiences on an online blog.

Soon her supportive husband, Eric (Chris Messina), informs her that her Julie/ Julia Project blog has gained extreme popularity. This comes as a surprise and soon she gets carried away by her cooking obsession and her mysterious connection with Child.

Her once supportive husband becomes frustrated and feels that her intention to do something meaningful has turned into an utter disaster.

Based on two separate true stories, Julie and Julia tells the heartwarming tale of two women with an exceptional love of cooking in the most passionate way one can imagine.

While being separated by half a century and completely different milieus, the similarities between the two women are significant.

These are thoroughly highlighted throughout the film without making it annoyingly obvious; and, without creating the slightest confusion, the story jumps between the lives of these two women.

The viewer experiences the hilarious predicaments Julia finds herself in at cooking school – initially she could not even boil an egg! One shares the disappointment when no-one wants to publish her recipe book that she has been working on for so long; then the comfort of her husband’s never-ending support.

Simultaneously, the trials and errors in a small kitchen by an adamant Julie bring empathy, laughter and frustration.

The experience somehow becomes real; feeling the onions burn one’s eyes, tasting the mouthwatering food and smelling the burnt flops in the kitchen. Nora Ephron has done an astonishing adaptation of these two stories. The cinematography, dialogue, music, set and costume design add to important components of a wonderful visual treat.

The detail from the different scenes portrays exactly what is needed to know: a tiny apartment, a messy kitchen, busy shoppers from the streets of Paris and the depressing interior of Julia’s working cubicle.

The wise choice of camera shots also add to the visual representation of various dishes, whether they were successful or not. Credit has to be given to the cast which performs so well. Without exaggerating the very intense and dramatic character of Julia Child, award- winning Meryl Streep plays the role brilliantly. She captures the flamboyant personality and dry sense of humour without much evident effort.

Julie and Julia is one of the first motion pictures based on a blog. The idea is wonderful and it is implemented most exquisitely.