A word on "Julie & Julia"

Don't you hate it when a movie or person or place gets talked about and hyped and surrounded by a great buzz only to not live up to all that ado? I was sure that was going to happen with "Julie & Julia". I'm so glad it didn't!

I first saw the trailers for this movie in June. I could barely wait to see it! I was certain that opening date of August 7th would never come. It was kind of like waiting for Christmas!

I'm sure many of you have heard about it, but for those of you just being released from under your rock, it's a story based on two true stories. One is the story of Julia Childs' birth into the world of cooking. The second is the story of a blogger (named Julie) who decides to try to put a little spice in her life by cooking all of the recipes in Julia Childs cookbook in one year and writing about it on her blog.

The stories were great. The humor and emotion didn't seem contrived and the characters were made more accessible because they were shown even with their flaws. But for me, it was the relatability of the blogging Julie and the struggles she went through that really made the movie wonderful.

I'm not a writer. I never enjoyed writing as a young girl. Perhaps that's the reason I'm a mathematician. However, I do love telling a good story. I have a passion for documenting my life and thoughts just in case someday some of my mental facilities leave me. Perhaps then I can at least read what I've written and think, "Wow. I don't know this girl, but she sure seems to have had a pretty good life." But perhaps the biggest reason I like blogging is because I actually do like the occasional bit of attention even though I don't like to admit it. I think if you're putting your thoughts /emotions / life out into cyberspace for all the world to read, you must want SOME attention, right?

So, this is the real reason I think I loved "Julie & Julia" so much. The blogging Julie couldn't have been more relatable to me. When she asked the universe that is the internet if someone was actually out there and reading, I felt her pain. When she nearly jumped for joy at the first comment she received on her blog, I too nearly let out a little "YAHOOOO" having remembered the first comment left on my blog. At one point in the movie, she sort of loses her mind a bit when the cooking is not going well at all. She basically falls on the kitchen floor (where a whole chicken has unfortunately also fallen), curls up in a ball and simply starts weeping like a baby. Oh, how I can relate to this one! Sometimes I perhaps jump into things with both feet and then have a bit of meltdown when I feel overwhelmed. Troy likes to refer to these moments as my "freak outs". As in, "Calm down. It will be okay. Don't freak out." For the record, having a freak out is not done as a conscious decision. By the time you're at the freak out stage, there are any number of things which are clearly no longer under your control. I'm sure you know what I mean. I can't be the only one this happens to.

While this movie may be billed as a "chick flick", I think it has a much broader appeal. For those who pour their hearts out to the internet universe; for those who are unhappy with their lives and want to be assured that there is a light at the end of the tunnel; for those who have set themselves seemingly unattainable goals: this is the movie for you.

Grab a bag of popcorn for me. I'll see you at the theater.