On this video edition of The Movie Critics, watch as Owen and I chew over a great performance by Meryl Streep as the legendary Julia Child in Nora Ephron’s mouth-watering foodie romance, Julie & Julia. Then tell us: What do you want to eat when you leave the movie theater?
I think it’s funny that Owen criticizes Nora Ephron for having made “cookie cutter” romantic comedies. I checked on IMDB.COM and, since the 1980′s, Ephron has written a grand total of 3 major rom-coms.
When Harry Met Sally
Sleepless in Seattle
You’ve Got Mail
Lisa is more accurate when she says that Ephron’s rom-coms have been so successful that they have set the standard and that other rom-coms have sort of copied her style.
Sleepless in Seattle and You’ve Got Mail are both adaptations of old blockbusters…so who made the cookie cutter? Not her!
You’ve Got Mail is an updated and highly reworked version of the old James Stewart movie Shop Around the Corner, which itself was adapted from a play. Shop Around the Corner is about 2 co-workers in a Budapest department store who dislike each other, and don’t realize they are each others secret pen pal.
Sleepless in Seattle wasn’t based on an old movie. It was nominated for an Oscar for best screenplay written directly for the screen, which means it wasn’t adapted from anything. It was also was nominated for a Writers Guild of America award for best original screenplay.
She doesn’t make cookie cutter movies, she makes the COOKIE CUTTERS.
Well, I just loved the movie, and agree that the Paris parts especially are spectacular. Good job, Nora! I am glad the critics are more even-handed about the Julie parts, and they are right. I ended up feeling bad about Julie Powell reading all these reviews that say the Julia parts are transcendant and the Julie parts…are not. (However, to be fair, I would’ve liked to have seen just Julia Child’s story. It was so joyous and ebullient!)
I too would have liked to see just Julia Child’s story. Especially since finding out about her past as a spy for the OSS.
yeah and she also really screwed up the big screen version of “Bewitched”..it is among the worst big screen adaptations of a T.V. show ever!
So true. “Bewitched” was bad. It should have been a straight out story of a witch marrying a human. Making it a real witch playing a witch on tv was stupid and confusing. Nicole Kidman may be a great actress, but she’s not great at comedy. She was wrong for the part. Will Farrell was wrong for his role as well. Steve Carrell was the best part of the movie, and he was only in it for a couple of minutes.
Enchanted by this movie, which was surprisingly funny. It didn’t bring up an appetite for any particular cuisine. At the end, I was weepy, needing a Kleenex, and so were other ladies of a particular age. We didn’t expect that reaction. Through the tears, unanimously, we agreed that we loved the movie.
It’s interesting to follow up on this comment board and find that Nora Ephron has only made 8 films (as director; 13 as writer) in the last 20 years, because it DOES feel like she’s more ubiquitous than this number would indicate. That said, I agree (as usual) with Owen–I found this movie charming and thoroughly enjoyed the “Julie Powell” sections [even if I wanted more Julia Child]. I thought it was a nice balance (with a few quibbles). (And I think the Julie Powell sections worked because Amy Adams and Chris Messina were so appealing as the leads; those scenes could have gone waaaaay wrong in other hands.