I watched all but the last ten minutes of Julie & Julia tonight. Maybe I'll get to that last bit eventually. It's the most I've seen of a movie in several weeks, at least. And apart from Ella jumping on me constantly, my viewing time was largely uninterrupted.

It could have been one movie and satisfied me: a movie about Julia Child. I liked the scenes of her life. I liked her efforts to speak French. I grew tired of the parallels between their lives. I didn't like the use of 9/11, even if the story happened that way. The use of blogging, as if it's already passé (and it seems to be) I also found gratuitous.

In watching Meryl Streep act her character, I never felt I was watching "Meryl Streep." Maybe her costume disguised her enough. Sometimes in her movies, I feel I'm watching her. Maybe only Defending Your Life is that way.

But I didn't feel I was watching Julia Child either. One review said Streep puts on "our impression of Child." Yes, that could be what it is. YouTube has a comparison of Streep and Child in the TV segment that Streep reenacts for the movie. Julia Child isn't trying to be anyone but herself.

I found the SNL clip of Aykroyd spoofing Child very funny. It originally aired Dec., '78 but I can't remember seeing it, big Python fan that I was. I heard him right when he says, "and cut along the backbone to the pope's nose, like so," despite how the various transcripts online read.