Julie & Julia 2009

Ben Lyons, At the Movies: Meryl Streep is terrific. She will be again the darling of the award show season. Read more

Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune: One can't help but wonder if Ephron would've been better off focusing exclusively on Child: She's simply more interesting screen company. But Ephron's commercial touch serves her well here. Read more

A.O. Scott, New York Times: Julie & Julia proceeds with such ease and charm that its audacity is easy to miss. Read more

David Edelstein, New York Magazine/Vulture: When actors like these are cooking, it's better than haute cuisine. Read more

Joe Morgenstern, Wall Street Journal: The joys of the Julia parts are cumulative, and addictive. The Julie parts keep forcing us to go cold turkey. Read more

Moira MacDonald, Seattle Times: Nora Ephron's Julie & Julia is one-half delightful and one-half disappointing; luckily, the delightful part stays with you while the rest fades away. Read more

Ruth Hessey, MovieTime, ABC Radio National: Ebullient, witty, and wonderfully warm-hearted Julie & Julia is a celebration of how to live life to the full. Read more

Keith Phipps, AV Club: Julie & Julia is two movies in one. That's one more movie than it needs to be. Read more

Bill Goodykoontz, Arizona Republic: Although the calories ultimately are empty, they sure are enjoyable. Read more

Boston Globe: This is blissful moviemaking. Much of the pleasure we have in watching it comes from seeing Tucci and, obviously, Streep connect. But it's also the effortlessness Ephron reveals in bringing it all together. Read more

Wesley Morris, Boston Globe: Read more

J. R. Jones, Chicago Reader: The main reason for seeing this is Meryl Streep's deft comic performance as the fluttery TV chef. Read more

Peter Rainer, Christian Science Monitor: There are many things wrong with Julie and Julia but, if you're looking to get hitched, you won't find a better booster. Just make sure that one of you can cook. Read more

Lisa Kennedy, Denver Post: What an expression of the joy of cooks and cooking Julie & Julia turns out to be. Read more

Tom Long, Detroit News: Fluffy, sweet and deliciously delightful, Julie & Julia is a hoot of a movie and a surefire recipe for a good time, assuming of course you can do without robots, superheroes and comics who curse. Read more

Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly: Though hardly a perfect souffle, Julie & Julia is the movie American foodie culture has been waiting for. It hooks you up, happily, to your inner top chef. Read more

Christine Champ, Film.com: Read more

Amy Nicholson, I.E. Weekly: Poor Amy Adams has been thrown on the barbecue; by contrast, Streep's scenes as Julia Child are as delightful as a slice of watermelon. Read more

Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times: A consummate entertainment that echoes the rhythms and attitudes of classic Hollywood, it's a satisfying throwback to those old-fashioned movie fantasies where impossible dreams do come true. Read more

Charlie McCollum, San Jose Mercury News: Sometimes a meal can be less than perfect but still so thoroughly enjoyable that a missed ingredient here or a bit of overcooking there doesn't really matter. Read more

Rene Rodriguez, Miami Herald: Streep makes you want to have whatever she's having. The rest of the movie makes you wonder what else is on, until you remember you're not really watching the Lifetime channel. Read more

Rafer Guzman, Newsday: Meryl Streep, as Child, is this film's butter; everything else is garnish. Read more

David Denby, New Yorker: Julie & Julia is one of the gentlest, most charming American movies of the past decade. Read more

Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger: It's Julia who truly delights, and who we want seconds of. Like the food she dishes up, she's warm and spicy, hearty and satisfying. Read more

Elizabeth Weitzman, New York Daily News: Well, what do you know? It turns out there was an accent Meryl Streep hadn't yet tackled -- and, as anyone might guess, she handles it with remarkable finesse. Read more

Lou Lumenick, New York Post: Meryl Streep makes such a tasty and larger-than-life Julia in a nostalgically evoked late-'40s Paris that it's worth stomaching the pancake-flat sequences with her supposed early 21st-century counterpart, Julie Powell. Read more

Rex Reed, New York Observer: This movie is an emerald of enchantment in the current sewer of cinematic trap rock. Read more

Roger Moore, Orlando Sentinel: The comedy about a would-be writer's attempt to cook her way through Child's culture-changing cookbook sees Nora Ephron return to her Sleepless in Seattle form. Read more

Carrie Rickey, Philadelphia Inquirer: Like Nora Ephron's captivating film, Streep's performance is haute cuisine disguised as comfort food, a complex preparation yielding effects both broadly entertaining and subtly moving. Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: Perhaps the most disappointing thing about Julie & Julia is the lack of dramatic closure. Read more

Richard Roeper, Richard Roeper.com: Less Julie and more Julia, and you'd have the perfect recipe... Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: Julie & Julia is not lacking in entertainment value, especially with the Streep performance. But if the men had been portrayed as more high-spirited, it might have taken on intriguing dimensions. Read more

Peter Travers, Rolling Stone: The ideal recipe has a special ingredient that can lift a dish from meh to memorable. Meryl Streep -- at her brilliant, beguiling best -- is the spice that does the trick for the yummy Julie & Julia. Read more

Stephanie Zacharek, Salon.com: Ephron does the smart thing in Julie & Julia and lets Streep carry the day, with a minimum of embellishment. Read more

Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle: Few movies are as delightful as Julie & Julia. Read more

Dana Stevens, Slate: Makes deboning a duck a feminist act and cooking a great meal a creative triumph. The stakes may not be as high as the kill-or-be-killed suspense of a summer action movie, but the sauces are way tastier. Read more

Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune: Loved the first course, hated the second. Read more

Joe Williams, St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Julie & Julia was directed by Nora Ephron with a light touch that will satisfy an eager audience of female foodies. Read more

Kate Taylor, Globe and Mail: Child was a large personality, and Meryl Streep is a great actress -- the combination does rather overshadow young Amy Adams in the role of Powell, the earnest disciple. Read more

Linda Barnard, Toronto Star: Child was often imitated but Streep lets us see her jubilant soul. Read more

Hank Sartin, Time Out: Read more

Nina Caplan, Time Out: A film that's charming, funny - especially when Streep is on screen, broadcasting her superb impression of the tall, charismatic, high-pitched Child - but leaves you with a dissatisfaction with modern life that no culinary masterpiece can relieve. Read more

Christopher Orr, The New Republic: [T]he whole enterprise has a whiff of marketing to it. Did the filmmakers worry that Child wouldn't be 'relatable' to contemporary women? Was there a fear that the 18-35 demographic would decline to show up if it didn't have an onscreen representative? Read more

Claudia Puig, USA Today: It's a light and entertaining treat, with winning performances, sharp writing and some happy surprises. Read more

Justin Chang, Variety: This middling melange of Child biopic and contempo dramedy feels overstuffed and predigested. Read more

Robert Wilonsky, Village Voice: If Ephron is to be criticized for treating Powell like a soggy sitcom creation, she (along with Streep) should be celebrated for rendering Child flesh and blood -- all passion and pleasure, even during moments of self-doubt. Read more