Julie and Julia

It's the eternal question: If you had an afternoon to yourself, what would you do?

I took myself to the movies. The newer and nicer of the two local movie theaters had a matinee of Julie and Julia, and a British gal who comes to the Curves where I work pronounced it a "brilliant film." She was right.

I loved it! I laughed (a LOT, I might add...out loud...often as the only one laughing, even though the theater was about 1/3 full). I cried. It was, indeed, brilliant.

Meryl Streep was amazing as Julia Child, and Stanley Tucci was perfect as her husband. In many ways, his supporting husband reminded me of Nathan Lane's supporting husband to Bette Midler's Jacqueline Susann in Isn't She Great. He completely supported his wife's desire to do SOMEthing (emphasis Streep's). He should play more nice guy roles...he's good at them!

I liked Amy Adams as the blogger Julie Powell, and while I'd heard of Powell's book, I have not yet read it. Many of the things she said and wrote resonated with me, particularly her penchant for not finishing projects and her fear of having developed attention deficit. I admire that she and her husband stuck things out (and from what I have been able to skim online, they've weathered much worse than dropped casseroles since the events of the film ended) and worked on their marriage and stayed together. In a culture of prevalent divorce, this is something unique and admirable. I loved how Eric (played by Chris Messina) devoured all of her cooking and was also supportive (up to a point, and even beyond that point, I might add) of his wife's endeavor.

All in all, I left the theater smiling and feeling very full and happy--even though I did not eat during the film.