Julie & Juliais a 2009 American comedy-drama film written and directed by Nora Ephron starring Meryl Streep , Stanley Tucci , Amy Adams , and Chris Messina . The film contrasts the life of chef Julia Child in the early years of her culinary career with the life of young New Yorker Julie Powell , who aspires to cook all 524 recipes in Child's cookbook in 365 days, a challenge she described on her popular blog that would make her a published author.

Ephron's screenplay is adapted from two books:My Life in France, Child's autobiography written with Alex Prud'homme , and a memoir by Powell documenting online her daily experiences cooking each of the 524 recipes in Child'sMastering the Art of French Cooking, and she later began reworking that blog, The Julie/Julia Project.Both of these books were written and published in the same time frame (2004–06). The film is the first major motion picture based on a blog.

In March 2008, Ephron began filming with Streep as Child and Adams as Powell. On July 30, 2009, the film officially premiered at the Ziegfeld Theatre in New York; and, on August 7, 2009, it opened throughout North America.Streep and Adams previously starred together inDoubt(2008). Streep and Tucci previously starred together inThe Devil Wears Prada(2006).

In 2002, Julie Powell (Adams) is a young writer with an unpleasant job at the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation 's call center, where she answers telephone calls from victims of the September 11 attacks and members of the general public complaining about the LMDC's controversial plans for rebuilding the World Trade Center . To do something she enjoys, she decides to cook every recipe inMastering the Art of French Cooking(1961) by Julia Child (Streep) in one year; Powell decides to write a blog to motivate herself and document her progress.

Woven into the story of Powell's time in Queens in the early 2000s is the story of Child's time in Paris throughout the 1950s, where she attends Le Cordon Bleu to learn French cooking and begins collaborating on a book about French cooking for American housewives. The plot highlights similarities in the women's challenges. Both women receive much support from their husbands, except when Powell's husband becomes fed up with her excessive devotion to her hobby and leaves her for a short time.

Eventually, Powell's blog is featured in a story published inThe New York Times, after which her project begins to receive the attention of journalists, literary agents, publishers, and a dismissive response from Child herself. Although Child's book is rejected by Houghton Mifflin , it is accepted and published by Alfred A. Knopf . The last scene shows Powell and her husband visiting Child's kitchen at the Smithsonian Institution and Child in the same kitchen receiving a first print of her cookbook and celebrating the event with her husband.