Glad That’s Over

I have a confession to make. I really wasn’t traveling on business last week. I intended to, but life intervened. Little Joan Pastry came down with pneumonia and the missus and I had our hands full taken care of her while at the same time meeting the obligations that keep the mortgage paid. The good news is Joan is now back to her normal, feisty self.

One thing that I did manage to do over the weekend was see the movie Julie and Julia, which I never quite got around to while it was in the theaters. The reason, because I always suspected it was a chick flick hiding inside the cloak of a topical film on food blogging and culture. I wasn’t wrong. In fact the DVD previews telegraphed quite clearly what I was in for before the movie even started: four promos for Victorian-era period peices plus one for a deluxe edition of Sleepless in Seattle.

Might as well open another beer, Joe, it’s going to be a long night.

What did I think of it? It’s hard to say since nothing much happened in it. It was lots of fun watching Meryl Streep go to town as Julia Child (no wonder she won the Golden Globe for the performance). I know I’m not alone when I say I’d have much preferred an entire movie based solely on her. As anyone who’s ever read Appetite for Life knows, Julia Child’s life contained more than enough intrigue to sustain a feature film. But times being what they are, studio marketing execs are forever chasing built-in audiences. You can almost hear the board room discussion:

We’d love to do the Julia Child script, Nora, we really would, but the studio can’t take the risk without an established market. Most Julia Child fans are in their seventies now, babe, a demo that doesn’t go to the megaplex. But have you seen how many young women are starting blogs these days? Over a thousand a week! Now we’ve got this script right here about that Julie Powell girl who did the thing with the blog a couple of years ago. Larry here has an idea about combining them into one concept…

I didn’t think it worked all that well, but what do I know? I may be a blogger, but the film wasn’t aimed at me. The time-tested chick flick themes about career versus home life, modern women trying to live up to 50’s ideals, being professional while trying to be feminine at the same time…it all pretty much washed right over me. My main thought coming away from the Julie and Julia was that the missus now owes me one. There’s a serious guy film in our very near future. I’m thinking Raid on Entebbe.