Meryl As Julia

I saw Julie & Julia about a week ago and have to say I didn't enjoy it much, but Meryl Streep's performance is definitely going to be a major contender this year. Surprise, surprise, right?

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Streep plays Julia Child with an immense, irrepressible joy. The film follows Julia in 1950s France, enrolling in culinary school, mastering the art of French cooking, and striving to publish the first French cookbook written for Americans. Then there are these irritating interruptions in which some self-obsessed, whiny cubicle worker in New York, played by Amy Adams, tries to cook her way through Child's revolutionary cookbook in one year. This part of the movie doesn't work. At all. Thank goodness for Streep's lovable Julia Child. Every time she graced the screen the audience I watched it with was overcome with the giggles.

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This is without a doubt a wonderful performance from Meryl. She and Stanley Tucci, as Julia's husband Paul, are the reasons to see this film. Their chemistry as the married couple they portray and as actors is perfect. Ms. Streep has another comedy Globe coming her way this year, and probably a 16th Oscar nomination as well.

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I know plenty of people are aching to see her with a third statue to add to her mantle. She hasn't won since 1982, after all, and you can't deny that she's one of the most brilliant actresses film has ever seen. But I can't help but hope she doesn't win this one. She's phenomenal here, to be sure, but I want her to win her third for a powerhouse dramatic role instead. Here's hoping she signs up for one soon.

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Also keep an eye (and ear) out for Meryl in It's Complicated, a Nancy Meyers comedy due in December, and the Wes Anderson stop motion animation feature The Fantastic Mr. Fox, to which Streep lends some voice talent.