Articles

Julie and Julia

Column: The Word on Films | Date Published: Wednesday, 14 October 09 | Author: Megan McKeough | | 2 years, 3 months ago

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Julie and Julia is a pleasant, entertaining film - sugary sweet, but perfectly watchable. The film consists of dual storylines - a technique that often leads to a confusing and frustrating mess, but Julie and Julia manages to pull it off quite nicely. One storyline follows Julia Child (Meryl Streep) as she learns French cooking in Paris and pens her famous cookbook, Mastering the Art of French Cooking. The other follows Julie (Amy Adams), a writer who sets out to cook all of Julia Child's recipes (over 500 in all) in the course of a year, and to document it on a blog - a project which she hopes will infuse some meaning and spirit into her life.

All of the characters are portrayed well, but Streep is particularly brilliant as Child. Her charismatic performance completely supports the film and ensures that Julie and Julia is neither boring nor annoyingly saccharine - which it easily could have been with a different cast.

While Julie and Julia won't exactly propel you to an emotional or intellectual epiphany, it is fun and quite easy to warm to. Overall, this film knows exactly what it's doing and does it well; providing great performances, a strong storyline and a somewhat corny but sufficiently heart-warming conclusion. It's chick-flick-by-numbers - but it works, so who's to complain?

	Moon: Sam Bell (Sam Rockwell) is an astronaut posted to the moon for three years, mining the lunar energy resource Helium-3. He has nothing for company but some recordings of his family back on earth and GERTY, a helper robot (voiced by Kevin Spacey). He's in the difficult, final two weeks of his stint when he discovers something a little strange out there on the surface - another Sam Bell. It's refreshing to see the amount of buzz this low-budget, high-concept feature is generating. Based on strong ideas and performances rather than special effects, it's a slow-burner in the greatest sci-fi tradition. It features many nods to other classics of the genre, most notably Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey. The film also treads very familiar science fiction ground in its themes - humanity, emotional isolation and the dehumanising effect of technology. Rockwell is superb in this very challenging role. He brings personality to both Sams and particularly excels in portraying the insanity that's seeping into their lives. He's playing opposite himself for the bulk of the film and director Duncan Jones handles this seamlessly. Moon is shot with a very careful eye that perfectly captures the fear, claustrophobia and sterility of the steel-lined moon base. Jones keeps us on edge for the entire hour and a half of his debut feature. Though this effect is strong enough that the experience is not always enjoyable, overall the film makes for captivating viewing.
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	Whip It: From the minute we're introduced to Bliss Cavendar (Ellen Page) we're assured that she's a misfit - a beauty queen tortured by her inner indie core. But when she discovers the world of female roller-derby, Bliss finally sees somewhere she could slot in. Sitting through Whip It was one of the more frustrating cinematic experiences I've had of late. This is due mainly to the fact that Drew Barrymore is an absolutely horrible director. On her first effort Barrymore took a relatively strong script and a superlative cast and ended up submitting an overlong, ultra-bland mess. Any bite the comedy might have had is wrung out by awkward pacing and stale lingering shots where the actors merely pause and stare. Added to this, the simple, borderline cliché plot often confuses when she relies on revealing character and exposition with dialogue rather than visuals. This could all be dismissed as yet another mediocre bit of celluloid if Whip It didn't have the potential to be so much more. It could have been the flagship for a new girl-power movement in film. Every major character here is a strong woman yet it's not man-hating and relies on minimal stereotypes. It's rare to see Hollywood game to carry a film almost entirely on the backs of female characters, outside of the romantic comedy genre. But this one's not good enough. The tools are there but the person wielding them is just not up to the challenge.
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