At the movies...

IM and I went to see Julie & Julia yesterday afternoon...matinee price, baby! It's certainly a good movie and that "phony-balony" Meryl Streep is amazing in everything she touches. So when you add Amy Adams and Stanley Tucci...and, hell, I'll even include Nora Ephrom...then you are guaranteed at least an enjoyable movie.

(one might consider the rest a "spoiler" so if you haven't seen the movie and can not accept any surprises being ruined, however slight, then stop reading)

There really interesting thing to IM and I is that there were a couple scenes pointing out Julia Child's apparent infertility (or to be fair her and her husband Paul's infertility...not like finding who to blame is even a worthwhile enterprise except for diagnosis and treatment). The first scene is really subtle and I wondered who else noticed (other than infertiles) where Julia and Paul are at the park and a woman pushing a stroller strolls by :) and there is just a pause...and Paul squeezes her hand a little bit more and she glances his way. The 2nd is when she reads a telegram announcing that her sister is pregnant. She reads it in Paul's presence and proceeds to break down in tears while assuring him that she is very happy for her. It kind of chokes me up just writing it. It was a very well done scene.

Anyway, another interesting thing is a few movie critics (notably salon.com) and film bloggers noticed the infertility part and mentioned it in their reviews. Of course, any asshole with an opinion can opinionate and the review at salon.com got some interesting ones...such as this one, this one, and this one. The first two are completely asinine and rolling infertility in with feminism...come on! There is a rule: don't talk about shit that you don't understand. It's very simple and yet so many people don't follow it. The third one though is a little more interesting. How do we know Julia Child was infertile...was she? According to her biographies she never had kids and thought it would have been nice to have had them. But, I think it's a stretch to say it was no big deal to her. How do we know what a super positive, private, woman of her generation thinks. We barely talk openly about infertility now and it's 2009 for god's sake.

I guess I'm just curious about Child. There is always that sense of the infertility "club" so to speak and learning of a member you were unaware of is always kind of fun. Is fun the right word? I suppose it's nice to have evidence that you are not alone and that someone as accomplished and famous as Julia Child dealt with the goddamn bitch of an unsatisfactory situation too.

Oh...and evidently Julie Powell has PCOS....so she's in the club too. Too bad for her...but I'm happy she's open about it.