Julie & Julia

The New Yorker David Denby

One of the gentlest, most charming American movies of the past decade. Its subject is less food as something to cook than food as the binding and unifying element of dinner parties, friendship, and marriage.

Philadelphia Inquirer Carrie Rickey

Even if you don't give a shiitake mushroom about food, there's much to savor in this lively comedy with dramatic aftertastes.

Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman

It hooks you up, happily, to your inner top chef.

Slate Dana Stevens

Julie & Julia makes deboning a duck a feminist act and cooking a great meal a creative triumph. The stakes may not be as high as the kill-or-be-killed suspense of a summer action movie, but the sauces are way tastier.

Empire Staff (Not credited)

Deliciously funny and warming fare, for which the amazing Meryl deserves her ridiculously overdue third Oscar.

Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan

A consummate entertainment that echoes the rhythms and attitudes of classic Hollywood, it's a satisfying throwback to those old-fashioned movie fantasies where impossible dreams do come true. And, in this case, it really happened. Twice.

The New York Times A.O. Scott

Julie & Julia proceeds with such ease and charm that its audacity -- is easy to miss.

Salon.com Stephanie Zacharek

Streep isn't playing Julia Child here, but something both more elusive and more truthful -- she's playing our IDEA of Julia Child.

New York Post Lou Lumenick

There's very little doubt in my mind that somewhere, culinary legend Julia Child is fuming about being consigned to a double bio-pic with a whiny, self-centered cooking blogger.

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

Meryl Streep -- at her brilliant, beguiling best -- is the spice that does the trick for the yummy Julie & Julia.

USA Today Claudia Puig

Spiced with plenty of humor and affection.

San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle

Few movies are as delightful as Julie & Julia.

New Orleans Times-Picayune Mike Scott

The result is a movie that, in its best moments, is delightful. It does lose a significant amount of steam halfway through -- likely due in part to its two hours of running time.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Kate Taylor

The film is at its best in scenes set in Europe in the 1950s – the protracted genesis of "Mastering the Art" provides the drama here.

Chicago Tribune Michael Phillips

One can’t help but wonder if Ephron would’ve been better off focusing exclusively on Child: She’s simply more interesting screen company.

Boston Globe Wesley Morris

This is blissful moviemaking. Much of the pleasure we have in watching it comes from seeing Tucci and, obviously, Streep connect.

Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow

In Julie and Julia, Ephron, like her heroines, has finally found what suits her: a surprising comic and romantic realism.

St. Louis Post-Dispatch Joe Williams

Streep is astonishing, conveying Child's gusto, her quavering voice, even her height.

The Hollywood Reporter Kirk Honeycutt

As enjoyable as this foodie movie is, you wish it would take a deeper, more nuanced measure of the women who, in two different eras, star in the movie's kitchens.

New York Magazine David Edelstein

Julie & Julia is full of holes, but you don't even care when Streep is onscreen.

New York Daily News Elizabeth Weitzman

Streep is the most important ingredient in this recipe.

Christian Science Monitor Peter Rainer

There are many things wrong with Julie and Julia but, if you're looking to get hitched, you won't find a better booster.

ReelViews James Berardinelli

The marriage of these two tales, however, should have ended in divorce court.

Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman

You know the feeling you get when you make a meal of two mildly savory appetizers that don't quite go together, and you leave you wishing you'd eaten one hefty entrée? That's Julie & Julia. Half an hour later, I wanted to watch another movie.

Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez

The movie could have used a few more scenes focusing on Child at work in the kitchen -- a few more scenes with Child doing anything, really.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

Julie & Julia is not lacking in entertainment value, especially with the Streep performance. But if the men had been portrayed as more high-spirited, it might have taken on intriguing dimensions.

Washington Post Ann Hornaday

A movie that soars whenever Child is on the screen and sags when Powell shows up.

Chicago Reader J.R. Jones

One keeps waiting for the title characters' lives to intersect, but when they finally do--with a reporter asking Powell to comment on Child's disparaging remarks about her--Ephron scurries away from the moment and its implications.

Film Threat Matthew Sorrento

Beyond "Streep camp," Julie and Juila falls into the drone of current historical movies, namely, the time-travel period treatment.

Village Voice Robert Wilonsky

It was the best of movies. It was the worst of movies. Which is to say: There's half of a great movie in Julie & Julia.

Variety Justin Chang

This middling melange of Child biopic and contempo dramedy feels overstuffed and predigested as it depicts two ladies who found fame and fulfillment in their respective eras by cooking and writing about it.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Keith Phipps

Two movies in one. That’s one more movie than it needs to be.

Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern

Strangely, though, there isn't enough for one movie, and the first clue to why lurks in the title's ampersand, a sort of linguistic duct tape holding together two stories that never really function as one.

Austin Chronicle Kimberley Jones

A romantic comedy, too, but this time the romance is between two women, and one of them, truth be told, is a dud.