Julie and Julia

Finally saw this as it just came out on dvd. I've talked about the Julie/Julia Project before, and the link to it is on the right side of the blog. She cooked every recipe in MtAoFC vol.1 in 1 year. Wrote a blog about it. Got a book deal. Got a movie deal. I loved the blog, liked the book, the movie was alright. I think it's all about quality and quantity of content. Lots in the blog; some in the book; and then, as for most movies based on a book, the movie paled somewhat. But there were some nuggets:

1)they included footage from a Dan Akroyd as Julia Child SNL skit that is pretty awesome
2)they included the bit about Amanda Hesser eating at her place and writing about her blog in the NYT, which Becky saw and told me about, which lead to me reading the Julia/Julia Project in it's entirety in about 2 weeks
3)really interesting: a guy from the SB newspaper who's name will not be mentioned called Julie cause he was writing a story about Julia (who lived in SB until the end) and told her that Julia didn't like the blog. in the director commentary we learn that Julia was kind of slow to adapt to new things, and she thought Julia would come around to the blog if she had lived longer. For example, apparently Julia originally thought that organic food was a fad and wished it would go away!!! In her later years she was known to frequent the downtown SB farmer's market.
4) Jane Lynch is great in a small role
5) Meryl Streep did a pretty amazing job of mimicry.

Again, I loved the blog. And Julia did alot for cooking in America. Combining stories about Julia's and Julie's life was kinda interesting, but the movie wasn't particularly visually interesting or anything, so wasn't really necessary for me. But if it brings converts into the cooking fold that is good.... Update: was just looking at her blog again, there are a ton of brand new comments, so it looks like the movie did the trick. Bueno.