Julie and Julia

It’s been far too long since You’ve Got Mail came out. “Where has the good romantic comedy disappeared to?” we wondered. Nora Ephron’s brilliant 1998 screenplay was like a beacon, especially to book-store going, coffee-drinking Jane Austen lovers. It was fresh, it was lovely, it was everything a romantic comedy should have been.

And then good romantic comedies died.

The fact of the matter is that most of today’s romantic comedies are all about girls trying to find themselves a man. Sure, it’s a universal theme, but I think Hollywood forgets that many women would rather have movies appeal to their artistic and intellectual sensibilities rather than their hormones. (I mean, let’s face it, women deal with hormones on a daily basis. Do we really want to watch other hormonal women all the time?)

So what’s been missing?

The quest! The goal! The need for something greater, the need to find something worthwhile, something to keep us going. It’s a theme that applies not only to romantically-inclined women, but to all kinds of men and women everywhere. In You’ve Got Mail, the conflict was a woman trying to keep her family business alive in a climate barreling toward megastores. Who can’t relate to that?

But that was ten years ago. Recently, the only romantic comedies we’ve really gotten have been about oversexed fashionistas learning about life or about underappreciated lonely women who blossom into oversexed fashionistas. (I exaggerate, but you know it’s not that far from the truth.)

Finally, writer/director Nora Ephron heard our despairing cries and gave us an answer.

That answer is Julie and Julia.

On the surface, Julie and Julia is hard to classify. It’s not really a romantic comedy because it’s not about the romance. However, the relationships in these two stories (that of Julia Child, American woman trying to find success as a French chef, and Julie Powell, modern-day American woman trying to find success as a writer) are of the utmost importance, a fact which becomes clearer with every close-up on the characters’ hands as they work, wedding rings prominent.

The story of Julie and Julia is completely universal. They were both just two women trying to figure out what they were supposed to do with their lives. Julie finds inspiration in Julia’s story, and the parallels between the two women’s lives are beautifully drawn.

The script is fresh, funny, and at times very poignant and heartwarming. What’s great about Ephron’s screenplay is that it’s never cliché. Ever. She has mastered the art of taking everyday people and giving them a little bit of magic, but never letting the audience lose sight of the fact that these are everyday human beings. The fact that the movie is based on two true stories helps, of course.

Meryl Streep is inconquerable as Julia Child. It was simply a brilliant performance, enhanced by the excellent support of Stanley Tucci as Child’s husband, Paul. In their first film together since The Devil Wears Prada, Streep and Tucci never let on for a second that they are actors. They have impeccable chemistry, and I hope to see them together in films more often.

Amy Adams sheds the Enchanted glitter and the Miss Pettigrew glamour for a lovely performance as an earthy, at-times-insecure, low-level-government-working woman. Chris Messina does a very nice job playing support to Ms. Adams as Julie Powell’s very loving and supportive husband, Eric.

The thing I love most about this movie, however, is not the plot, not the actors, not even the script. The thing I love most about this movie is the way it portrays the importance of a strong marriage. We’re living in a world where divorce is commonplace and families are being torn apart on a daily basis, and most of us just ignore the problem until the problem becomes our problem or the problem of a family member. The fact of the matter is that marriage is not what it used to be, and people don’t see it the way they used to. In this movie, it’s made very clear that neither of these women could have gotten where they were if their marriages had failed. At one point, Julie and Eric have a big argument and he leaves. Julie makes an effort to fix what’s wrong, and Eric comes back shortly thereafter. Isn’t that the way it’s supposed to work?

Overall, Julie and Julia is an absolutely delightful film that will make you feel really good at the end of a long day, or really at any time of day at all.

Be warned, however: You will inevitably leave the theater feeling incredibly and inexplicably hungry.