Julie and Julia

I have fallen in love. This hasn't happened with me and a movie for a long time. There have been great movies, there have been movies that have touched me, been real to me, made me happy, made me sad, made me truly think about all the aspects of life, but, not since BEAUTIFUL GIRLS have I seen a movie that made me feel EVERYTHING I needed to feel and inspired me to do something that I never thought I would be able to do.

Now, I am not going to go and start my own cooking blog (although it DID cross my mind), but I have been given the idea that cooking can be a love, not a pressure or a disappointed. OR, more accurately, that cooking can be loved while still being a pressure and a disappointment.:) I don't know why it took a movie like this to make me see it considering how much both my husband and my mother love to cook, but it just did. And, still, I don't see myself coming home from a day of work and staying up until midnight waiting for a boeuf bourguignon to come out of the oven, but I may just find myself enjoying the idea of cooking a bit more when I think of the joy that both Julie an Julia got out of it.

The movie itself is amazing and real and lovely...seeing someone laying on the floor in the kitchen crying because they have dropped the chicken they are stuffing and it is splattered all over the floor...it made me feel like maybe I am not alone! Listening to Julie's husband talk about her meltdowns and her obsession and seeing the smile on her face when she served the wonderful dishes to her friends...it all made it real to me because, yes, I have had moments where I felt like sitting on the floor and crying because I just can't make it turn out right, and then, once it gets on the table, I have felt like the Queen of the Kitchen!
THE ACTORS:
Meryl Streep blew me away in this movie. Seriously, I'm not a fan of her's. I think she was on drugs for much of her career, but this movie and her portrayal of Julia Child were just so wonderful that I might have to give Meryl the benefit of the doubt.

Stanley Tucci played one of the best roles of his entire career in this movie: so quite, understated, yet entirely essential to the whole movie and the character of Julia. I have always loved this man-ever since he started doing Shakespeare, but I was so afraid he was going to get lost in the world of "deep" movies and now I have hope for him once again!

Jane Lynch was a surprise for me in this movie. For those who don't know-she is an amazing TV actress (who has done some movies) who has this incredibly dry, wry sense of humor that cuts like a knife. She plays Charlie Sheen's therapist on "Two and a half Men" and the cheerleading coach on "Glee" as well as many other funny parts. But here, in this movie as Dorothy (Julia's 6'5" tall sister), she comes alive and really really shows the ease and grace with which she can act. She fits so well next to Meryl Streep at the table that one would think she had been acting with that caliber of actors her entire career. I love her! She was so wonderful!

I think the question, really, is were all these people as wonderful as they were in the movie? Because, if they were, then the world is worth living in and there is definitely hope for the rest of us positive people to make a go of it.

And, I have come away from this with hope for more than cooking. I now feel like it might be possible to figure out and start and continue with the love of my life, the thing I truly want to do, without having to do it before I'm 30, without having to make a fuss, without having to be formally trained or published or doing it as a full time job. It IS possible to be who you want, do what you want, and still live and work in the every day. Maybe sometime I WILL write a book or maybe it will just be brilliant moments like these in my blog. Maybe someday I WILL be a certified Animal Doctor...or maybe I will run a non-profit kennel and know how to get grants for it. Who knows, but there ARE so many ways to find and do what you love without having to do it the way you are expected to, the way others think you should, or the way that is "conventional". And boy doesn't that just make me feel like it's all going to be okay!