Today I took my Granny to see the gorgeous movie Julie and Julia, with the truly glorious Meryl Streep and the darling Amy Adams. It tells the story of Julia Child - an American who learnt to cook in Paris, circa 1950ish, and revolutionised cooking in America by showing Americans the French way with food.
It also tells the story of Julie Powell, an unhappy office worker circa-now, who cooks her way through Julia Child's seminal cookbook, hoping to add a bit of spice to her life, and blogs about this process (and has an international following, and gets a book and movie deal through this - wow!).
I loved every minute of the film, every second of it. Of course, it was not a perfect film, but it was beautiful - the food, the location, the storyline, the writing, the characters, the recipes.
I absolutely loved Meryl Streep's depiction of Julia Child (whom I knew nothing about before this film), she just seemed to be such a fantastic woman. Her physicality was fascinating to me - tall, big (not fat, but big - wide hips, large hands, sturdy thighs, long feet), with great frocks and toweringly tall high heeled shoes, and she adored food and was not afraid to eat healthy portions of good cheese, butter, meat and dessert.
As a tall, big woman myself who absolutely lives for food (and cooking) it struck a chord. I particularly adored the part when Julia's sister came to stay and was also a superbly tall and big lady with a healthy appetite and a great personality. It gave me a nice boost of self-appreciation to see these two magnificent, tall, gloriously grand characters; they just wouldn't have been the same had they been short, fine boned, small bottomed gals.
Anyway, all of that is an aside to what I really wanted to write about today, as indicated by the title of this post. Because the thing I loved most about this film was its depiction of marriage.
I got married this year, back in May N and I tied the knot. We'd been together for almost five years when we did this, and we'd tossed up whether or not we wanted to get married for a long time, but in the end decided it was the way for us.
I tell you this because I do not wish anyone reading this to think that we see marriage as essential to a meaningful, commited relationship, nor are we religious and therefore following a guideline. We just thought it was right for us, it's what the two of wanted for our lives. Therefore my discussion below portends more to commited relationships in general, rather than marriage in particular.
That was a bit of a convoluted way to get back to my point, but........
Julie and Julia shows two delightful marriages, filled with love, passion, sadness, loss, frustration, anger, and the billion other experiences and feelings that exist in a committed relationship. It was just wonderful to see marriages depicted that way because I am worn out of films, books, television shows, songs etc. etc. that tell endlessly depressing stories about marriage and relationships and there inevitable and bitter endings.
I am tired of hearing the statistics on relationships that end, and I want to hear about relationships that continue, that grow and flourish throughout peoples lives even as life throws up its various challenges.
Reading some different reviews about Julie and Julia many writers said they hated the 'sex scenes' (if you can call them that, it was more 'kissing scenes eluding to the fact that sex might happen'), they didn't like seeing the grand Julia Child getting down and dirty with her husband. I liked this, it's nice to know that people have sex even when they've been married awhile, and it's nice to know that Julia's husband enjoyed her big bottom, wide hips and sturdy thighs.
I also liked that both couples in the film had fun together. They ate delicious meals with candles and the TV off, they held dinner parties, and both couples, but particularly Julia and her husband laughed a lot together (oh, the delightful Valentine's postcards they sent their friends!). I loved seeing this, instead of dreary story after dreary storyof marriages where the couple don't speak, or if they speak they are hiding hateful feelings behind closed faces. Where they watch TV together shovelling in their food rather than eat a meal at the table, and if they have sex its vengeful and hate filled rather than loving and playful (i.e. Revolutionary Road or The Slap anyone, reading/watching those depictions of relationships made me want to vomit!).
Or, if a commited relationship is described positively it's just the start of that relationship that is discussed- the first kiss is shown, and suddenly we flip forward to 5 years down the track, and it's all smiles, and the woman has a pregnant belly or baby on her hip.
Before I wrote this post I read that Julie Powell actually cheated on her husband about two years after she completed the blogging project which is the basis for the movie. Obviously this incident is not mentioned in the film, nor should it be because it happened a long time after the film is set. But, this depresses me no end, could a real happy ever after not happen?
But still, the film tells the story of two lovely marriages and I'm going to concentrate on that. And it's now one in three marriages that end in divorce, I think, but that means that two in three marriages last and I choose to see the glass as two thirds full, rather than one third empty.
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