Charming documentary feels more like a leftover
No offence to the filmmakers behind this charming documentary about the late, great chef and TV personality Julia Child, but for me the quintessential portrait of her will always be Julie & Julia (2009), with Meryl Streep. And no offence to Amy Adams, but I much prefer the hour-long fan edit Julia Sans Julie, which excises her modern-day food blogger.
Co-directors Julie Cohen and Betsy West have done better work — see Oscar-nominated Ruth Bader Ginsburg doc, RBG (2018). And they don't do themselves any favours by wading through the standard who-what-where-when biographical beats en route to Child's status as the woman who upended and reinvented the way Americans cooked.
But there are some lovely moments here, such as the revelation that Child not only enjoyed Dan Aykroyd's Saturday Night Live take on her — the sketch apparently inspired by the time she cut her finger quite badly just before going on air — but that she kept a VHS of it at home to show off to guests.
There are also sweet details about her almost-50-year marriage to Paul Child, played by Stanley Tucci in that other movie. One story — possibly apocryphal but who cares — has it that when she had her left breast removed due to cancer, and wondered aloud how he would ever love her, he replied: “I didn't marry you for your breasts.” Pause. “I married you for your legs.”
Less funny but more beautiful is the sonnet he once penned to her. It's worthy of Shakespeare. I shan't spoil it here. So you've still got a reason to see Julia.