The Movers.com Blog

Meryl Streep as Julia Child

Several months ago, I was reading through a few cooking blogs in search of a particular recipe and I stumbled upon a picture of Meryl Streep with short ruddy curls holding an uncooked chicken in the most peculiar of poses.

“That’s odd,” I thought.  “She bears an almost uncanny resemblance to Julia Child…”

I read on and learned about “Julie & Julia,” the upcoming summer flick about the late French Chef and a blogger who took to following her tome, “Mastering the Art of French Cooking.”  Immediately I vowed to see the film as soon as I possibly could.

Naturally, opening weekend of the film was filled with things to do and places to go.  The next weekend was equally hectic.  I was finally able to see the film in theaters this past Saturday, and it was quite good.  One of the underlying themes in the movie struck me: moving.

Moving was an integral part of Mrs. Child’s life.  She dotted around Europe and the United States with her loving diplomat husband, Paul.  From Paris to Oslo to Cambridge, the Childs experienced life all around the world.  There was one particular line in the film when Paul suggests to Julia that they would go home and sort through her collaborative work on the cookbook.  She ponders where home is.

“Home is wherever we are,” he says gently, pulling her in close for an intimate moment.

The film is filled with equal parts of cooking gadgets, delicious cuisine, and moving boxes.  Right off the bat we see 21st century blogger Julie Powell moving into a studio apartment in Queens.  She and her husband have the back seat piled high with boxes and knick knacks, including an orange cat.  Shortly thereafter, we see Julia and Paul moving into their Parisian home of four years (”It’s Versailles!” Julia exclaims) only to move out when his assignment shifts them to the south of France.  They go from place to place accompanied by thick, wooden moving crates.

In one scene, we see Julia holding her cookbook as she wraps it in newsprint.  Her face is forlorn and sad, but her warbly voice exudes her signature charm and forced optimism (clearly put on to keep her beloved husband from worrying).  Paul, meanwhile, carefully wraps her teapot and other ceramic pieces in old newspapers, ensuring that each item will be safe during the overseas voyage.  He knows how important cooking is to his wife, and he wants to make sure that she can continue cooking in her new home.

Toward the end of the movie, we see the couple’s Cambridge, Massachusetts home.  The porch is covered in crates marked “CHILD” and the entire home is stacked with relocation supplies.  It’s during this scene that Julia achieves her most poignant victory: her publisher notifies her that they’d like to give her an advance on the book, and she gleefully accepts.

While most people saw the boeuf bourguignon and buttery lobsters in the movie, I was most pleased by the way that the writers and producers integrated moving into the two main characters’ stories.  Moving is a part of life, and it’s one that is often forgotten or downplayed in movies.  Not in “Julie & Julia.”  In fact, you might go so far to say that relocation was an hors d’oeuvre for a main course helping of Julia Child.