Random Musings

Ok, so I’m finally experiencing the joys of movie-watching.

So anyway, I recently gave “Julie & Julia” a shot…cos the reviews weren’t too bad and it looked like quite an interesting show.

Bottomline is: If you’re a foodie or a female, you’ll probably love the show.

If you’re neither a foodie nor a female (like me on both counts), then you’ll probably still enjoy the show, but not as much.

I personally thought the show was watchable, and in all fairness the two hours running time didn’t seem like two hours at all.

It was rather enjoyable.

It’s just that I can’t help but conclude that “Julie & Julia” is more of a girl movie.

I guess the main allure of the movie for me was the way they depicted Paris in the 40′s.

It was very charming indeed. I enjoyed every second of it.

Meryl Streep plays a spaced-out and perennially tipsy-looking lady (no doubt something only a genius like her can pull off) by the name of Julia Child.

Amy Adams (first time I’m watching her in a movie) plays a young New York wife Julie Powell who bears an uncanny resemblance to a younger and slightly more beautiful Miranda from “Sex and the City”.

The movie is based on an interesting concept whereby it depicts the lives of two main female characters (Julie and Julia), both living more than fifty years apart, but sharing a same common thread in their lives.

The two characters never really meet in the movie, but they share so much in common Julie feels as if she’s known Julia all her life.

…

Story-Telling

The story-telling was marvellous, and how does one know?

Well, I’ll tell you how you know – The whole movie shifts between the two J’s. And just when you feel attached to one character’s story, they shift to the other character. But the moment it shifts, you’d go “Ah, why change scene now? I’m so into this!” But after awhile, you totally forget about that and start to get attached to this current story.

And back and forth it goes…and each time it shifts, you’d realise how much you are actually being intrigued by both stories.

That’s how you know.

Plot-wise, I would say that it was conventional at best, and there wasn’t anything particularly dramatic or tragic that made you want to get extremely involved in an emotional way.

(I guess the most gripping moment was when Julia overslept and had her boeuf bourguignon burnt in the oven. That was probably as much tension as there was in the show.)

Overall I’d say that “Julie & Julia” is a great piece of story-telling, but nothing really exceptional in terms of drama or depicting any aspect of human relationships.

Most of the characters seemed rather unidimensional and lacked depth, despite the two hours running time in the movie.

I suppose it’s a nice, enjoyable movie to watch if you’re in for something “light”.

Like an entrée, perhaps.

P.S. “The Blue Mansion” shall be next on my list.