'Julie & Julia': A Perfect Blend

Don't believe the "half great, half not-as-great" nonsense popping up in nearly every review of "Julie & Julia," it's all delicious.

Sure, Meryl Streep is most definitely the "revelation" everyone is making her out to be ("Oscar, Meryl. Meryl, Oscar" -- and one for scene-stealer Jane Lynch too, while you're at it). Every time Streep comes on the screen you will find yourself giddy and laughing -- usually before she even has a chance to say anything. (She's that good and that delightful.) Her chemistry with Stanley Tucci is like nothing you've seen in our generation.

Still, while Amy Adams -- whose eerie resemblance to a young Cynthia Nixon and Pam on "The Office" was almost distracting at times -- may not be the heir to Meryl Streep's throne, nor is Julie Powell a fraction the legend Julia Child is, I found -- go figure -- the drama of her life as a self-absorbed blogger in a relationship -- wondering if you have readers, wondering if you're wasting your time, getting your first comment, getting your first "break" -- to be equally thrilling and equally fascinating as Julia's quest to get her cookbook published. And as great as Tucci was -- and he was -- Julie's hubby, played by sexy Chris Messina of "Six Feet Under" fame, certainly did not disappoint. (Gratuitous ass shot available HERE.) I could almost feel Michael's eyes turn into daggers as Julie's man yelled at her that she "loved that blog" she writes "for strangers" more than she loved him!! For me, to dismiss the Julie half of the film is to miss the whole point. Both women -- Julia Child and Julie Powell -- took their love of good food and the love of a good man and parlayed it into personal happiness and career fulfillment. (As Julia might say, to say their stories don't go together is to say butter doesn't go with -- everything.) And truth be told, as wonderful as Streep is, I can't help but feel like two hours of that voice and those mannerisms would have turned her performance from a brilliant impersonation slash interpretation into over-the-top camp.

My grade: A (loved it; wouldn't change a thing, although I don't think they had those padded mailers back in the day when Julia's cookbook was first published, people!)