Ellington

CASEY PHILLIPS: "Julia and Julie" is a charming movie that is simultaneously a period piece, a romantic comedy and a salivatingly good food flick. That it juggles all those identities without skipping a beat is a testament to Nora Ephron's own ability to wear multiple hats as writer/director/producer. With "J & J," Ephron has produced her finest film since 1998's "You've Got Mail," and Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan are nowhere in sight.

The film achieves a fine balancing act between two strong lead actresses -- Amy Adams as the blogging chef Julie Powell and Meryl Streep as cooking legend Julia Child. Both women manage to make cooking seem fun and remarkably sexy, which given that Streep turned 60 in June, is really saying something.

HOLLY LEBER: Cooking is remarkably sexy. It's sensual. "Julie & Julia" made me want to create something to be savored and licked off the fingers. I've read at least two comments from Facebook friends who want to start food blogs.

Though less glamorous here than in "Enchanted" or "Miss Pettigrew," Amy Adams plays another Cinderella-type role in "Julie & Julia," and she does so with aplomb. Not only does she downplay her looks, she also doesn't push to make Powell a heroine. At times, the modern day aspiring gourmande is unlikeable, brushing off her husband and talking about her "readers" like she's the Pied Piper and they're the children of Hamelin. Beneath the selfishness, she shows Powell's desire to feel accomplished, her frustration at not living up to her own potential, and the love between her and her (sometimes suffering) husband (Chris Messina).

CASEY: Agreed. Streep is in fine form as well. Julia Child is an imminently recognizable figure, and Streep's performance really captures Child's open-armed personality, her fearlessness and infectious energy. At the same time, the movie offers a window on Child's private life, including her boundless love for her husband, Paul (Stanley Tucci), and the trials and tribulations of writing the seminal book Powell later cooks her way through.

The movie splits its attention between the two stories, but both have an abundance of inspiring cooking scenes rife with mishaps and drool-worthy successes.

HOLLY: Ephron succeeds, for the most part, in moving back and forth between 1950s France and modern-day New York. The choice to juxtapose Powell's book with Child's was a clever idea; I don't think "Julie & Julia," the book, would have held as its own movie, but laid side-by-side with "My Life in France," it worked. At times the transitions seemed a bit disjointed, but as a whole, it was a very good, happy movie -- two words that critics are often loathe to place side by side, but I liked it, without apology, because as Streep-as-Child says in the film: "never apologize."

CASEY: I would finish with something witty, but I'm too busy trying to decide what to title my blog and if my landladies would mind me installing a wood-fired oven in my apartment. Holly?

HOLLY: I suppose we should probably take a cue from Child and just say "bon appetit."

E-mail Casey Phillips at cphillips@timesfreepress.com and Holly Leber at hleber@timesfreepress.com