Takeaway message from Julie & Julia: If you are any sort of creative type in a relationship, it really helps to have a supportive significant other who puts up with your quirks and meltdowns. Oh, and Meryl Streep could conquer the world, if she wanted to (let’s not make her angry).

Trackback: I had read Julie Powell’s book of the same name when it came out in 2005. In this Atlantic article, Powell takes issue with the premise of her quest in the movie: In 2002, when she started blogging, web authors really weren’t getting book deals. She started the blog for the same reasons that other people were starting blogs back then, because she had a obscure passion and a great idea and no other outlet available. I didn’t actually read the blog until Amanda Hesser at the New York Times catipulted her into mainstream, but even then, the Julie/Julia Project stood out for its premise and its voice. The book did the same – and, as Powell points out – it was funny.

So back to the movie. I’m not surprised that Powell isn’t completely thrilled with the way she’s portrayed on screen.The character, played by a decidedly dressed down Amy Adams, is intense and driven and more than a little neurotic – in a way that’s not particularly likeable. Contrasted with Meryl Streep’s Julia – also intense and driven and neurotic, but also sunny and lovable  – Powell does get the raw end of the deal. Plus she has to live in a cramped Queens apartment while Childs swans around a spacious Paris townhouse.

Streep is amazing, of course, and is a shoe-in for another Oscar nod. Shot to appear as tall as the 6’2 Child, she captures the essence of the insatiable gourmet (who I’ll admit, is only familiar to me from old TV clips and Dan Ackeroyd) who introduced French cooking to America. The movie puts forth the idea that Child was so in love with Paris that she translated that love into French cooking (also, she was bored and needed something to do).

But what I really loved about this movie, besides Streep’s performance, were the relationships that both women had with their husbands. Both men realize that they are supporting players in their wives’ respective dramas, although Stanley Tucci gets in a few great lines as Paul Childs (Chris Messina, who plays Powell’s husband Eric, isn’t quite as mesmerizing). And you get the feeling that no matter how driven Childs and Powell were, they might not have completed their endeavors if they didn’t have these quiet cheerleaders behind them.

That’s not to say that creative women need husbands, far from it. In the Atlantic article, Powell gives the credit to her readers, who cajoled her to the finish line. And Childs did have several collaborators and friends who helped her along and kept her going. But to finish a project on the magnitude of Mastering the Art of French Cooking  or the Julie/Julia Project – and stay married if you are married – it does help to be hitched to a saint (although Powell’s husband hated the word).

Powell’s next book is scheduled to come out in December. It’s called Cleaving: A Story of Marriage, Meat and Obsession. Call me a voyeur, but I’m interested to read more about her relationship and how the demands of blogging influence it. Maybe it’s just because I’ve spent part of my time after work lately on the couch typing here instead of hanging with my husband (although he works on his own web project here) , but I think it’s exciting and tender when spouses support each other creatively. And that’s why to me, Julie & Julia is not only a love story to Julia Child, it’s a love story, period.