Julie & Julia:The ULTIMATE Artist in the Office Movie!

I had an important book deadline this week, which, I am happy to report, I met. I decided to celebrate and beat the heat by going to a noontime showing of Julie and Julia. I have to say, there is so much PLEASURE in sitting in an empty, cool theater with popcorn and a soda in the middle of the day. I could have been seeing a two hour documentary on paint drying and I wouldn't have cared. The heat and humidity that we escaped earlier this summer has come roaring in this last week. Oy. It is NOT pleasant. It feels pretty horrible and Graham and I have been scrambling to find creative ways to find air conditioning. As it happens, movie theaters are excellent. Too bad there aren't any GREAT movies to see, but who am I to judge? I remember one summer in Boston where I went and saw the horrible Lake Placid to escape the heat--and it was PACKED. But I was not in the theater this week to see a documentary on paint drying OR Lake Placid, I was there to see Julie and Julia and I have to tell you that I found it DELIGHTFUL. Yes, like everyone else, I LOVED Meryl Streep as Julia Child the best and wished that part was 4 hours long. The Julie parts were less compelling, yet I had many MORE THOUGHTS about it. As I walked out I thought, this is a PERFECT Artist In the Office story.

Julie Powell's story, cubicle maven by day, Julia Child disciple by night, was already familiar to me. I remember hearing about her blog just as I was finding temp work in New York and thinking, "THAT CHICK BEAT ME TO IT! DAG!" Powell's story of needing SOMETHING in her life that gave her direction, purpose, and creative expression and finding it by cooking every single recipe in Julia Child and Simone Beck's Mastering the Art of French Cooking is probably the most direct and ULTIMATE example for artists in offices everywhere. Recently, I heard an interview with the writer and director of the film, Nora Ephron, where she described the combination of Julie's project and working full-time as "insane." I thought, how long has it been since you've been working in an office job, Ms. Ephron? Or have you ever? It's pretty LARGE project of trying to cook 524 recipes in a year, I'll give you that, but NEVER underestimate the frustrated artist in the day job who suddenly catches a whiff of purpose.

To me, Julie's story is a big OF COURSE. Give someone the direction of an idea, a clear format, a deadline, and accountability, mixed in with delight and, day job or no day job, you will get things done. You have to--you want it too bad. It's the passion and the reason you get up in the morning. It's how you withstand a day life that can seem deadening. Wouldn't you get up to climb mountains if after years of struggling, you had suddenly found a context for your efforts and your dreams? Speaking from experience, HELL YES.

It was interesting to see a movie which featured blogging. It was 2002 when Julie started her blog, a time when blogs were just taking off in a large way. I don't want to wax all nostalgic about it, ( I didn't even HAVE a blog then) but the truth is it was a burgeoning and unique time for a new medium that could give voice and context to such hair brained schemes as cooking an entire cookbook. It gave such projects a point. Yes, like all beginnings, it was a simpler time. There was room to grow and grow it did, as we all know. I like that the movie touched upon the magic of such an outlet, but I like that it also touched on the pitfalls: raging narcissism, bloated self-importance, and creating characters out of the very REAL people you live with (to list a few). I've (thank GOD) never had an argument where Graham had to say, "...and DON'T PUT THIS IN THE BLOG!" But I know people who have. I do know the feeling of need created by getting heard for the first time by strangers and how it can take over your life for spells of time. It touched on all of these, but then, because it is a movie, she gets it and moves on.

I love movies so much, yet they are a limited medium. They love the triumph, but never have room for the mundane (unless it is followed by triumph). (SPOILER ALERT!) The movie ends with Julie cooking her last triumphant meal and Julia Child exalting in the triumph of her newly published book. We know that Julie's life takes off because a movie has been made of her own book she will go on to write, and that Julia Child will become an American treasure. Of course, Julie's life doesn't end when she cooks her 524th recipe, but the movie does. She has a new memoir coming out, which talks about the AFTER PROJECT of her LIFE, which I know deals with some heavier, not so pleasant things. Life isn't a movie, of course. It isn't even a blog. It's so much messier and more varied. We can find our purpose only to lose it again, (only to find it and to lose it and to find it) but there isn't a movie in that. At least not yet. I am sure there is a blog about that somewhere. Probably here.