Film reviews: Julie and Julia | Sorority Row | Dorian Gray | Whiteout | Miss March | Fish Tank

Published on Friday 11 September 2009 10:57

Julie and Julia (12A) ****

Meryl Streep looks certain to secure a 16th Oscar nomination for her tour-de-force portrayal of an American cultural icon in the new comedy from writer-director Nora Ephron (Sleepless In Seattle).

Based on two memoirs set more than 50 years apart, Julie & Julia is a frothy and entertaining tale of cuisine, l'amour and the art of killing lobsters.

As a film of two distinct halves, Ephron's confection is hopelessly unbalanced.

Scenes involving Streep in post-Second World War France are utterly delightful and every time she is off-screen, we hunger for more.

Present-day sequences headlined by Amy Adams, Streep's co-star in 2008's Doubt, are a mere amuse bouche in comparison, lacking the warmth or the depth of emotion that takes hold in late 1940s and early 50s Paris.

Julia Child (Streep) is an inspiration to generations of women across the Atlantic.

She was the first American woman to study at the esteemed Cordon Bleu cooking school in Paris and then introduced authentic French cuisine to the kitchens of her homeland, signing off her television show with the catchphrase, "I'm Julia Child. Bon appetit!".

Ephron's film opens in the French capital as Julia and her doting US diplomat husband Paul (Stanley Tucci) settle into new lodgings.

Blessed with an indefatigable spirit, Julia yearns for something productive to keep her amused.

"What is it you really like to do?" asks Paul as they tuck into a hearty lunch. "Eat," replies Julia with gusto. So Julia flouts convention and attends Le Cordon Bleu, where teachers deride her initial efforts.

Meanwhile, in 2002 New York, enthusiastic cook Julie Powell (Adams) feels emotionally worn down by her work for an organisation connected with the rebuilding of the World Trade Center.

She decides to work through all 524 recipes in Child's seminal tome, Mastering The Art Of French Cooking, in just 365 days and pen a blog about her exploits.

Ephron cuts back and forth between the two storylines, contrasting Julia and Paul's rock-solid marriage with Julie's foundering relation-ship with her husband Eric (Chris Messina), who grows weary of his wife's obsession with rich sauces.

Julie & Julia rises like a souffle thanks to Streep's portrayal of Child, whose distinctive, high-pitched voice was famously caricatured by Dan Aykroyd on Saturday Night Live.

She imbues the statuesque gourmand with pluck and vulnerability, and the chemistry with Tucci is irresistible as he toasts Julia at a dinner party with the heartfelt words, "You are the butter to my bread, the breath to my life".

Adams and Messina have to work much harder in their segments to win sympathy.

"I'm never going to meet her," whines Julie. "But you already know her," replies Paul soothingly.

Indeed, we feel like we do know Julia Child by the end of Ephron's film, which simmers nicely but never quite comes to the boil.

Teens-in-peril slasher thriller gets a makeover

Sorority Row (15) ***

Sisters are doing it for themselves - covering up murder, that is - in Stewart Hendler's competent remake of the 1983 slasher The House On Sorority Row.

Cast in the rigid mould of countless other teens-in-peril thrillers, Sorority Row works so hard to discount one of its characters as the hooded campus killer that we're certain of their guilt.

Try too hard to throw an audience off the scent and we'll easily sniff out a double-bluff.

While the plot slavishly abides by convention, Josh Stolberg and Peter Gold-finger's script is surprisingly waspish, providing the teenage damsels in distress with some deliciously catty exchanges as they attempt to avoid an early grave.

When one sorority member is bullied into dropping her towel in the shower room, a rival sneers: "FYI, waxing isn't just for floors any more."

The dialogue elicits frequent chuckles, whether it be one girl trilling, "Friend me on Facebook and I'll totally confirm", or another potential victim discovering a room-mate's corpse and gasping: "She looks terrible!"

Jessica (Leah Pipes) is the queen bee of the sorority house presided over by Mrs Crenshaw (Carrie Fisher).

What Jessica says goes, so when it comes to playing a prank on Garret (Matt O'Leary), the two-timing brother of sorority member Chugs (Margo Harshman), everyone tows the line.

The girls decide to teach Garret a lesson by convincing him that he has killed Megan (Audrina Patridge) during a party by slipping her a date-rape drug.

In fact, Megan is just pretending to be out cold while her sisters - Cassidy (Briana Evigan), Ellie (Rumer Willis) and Claire (Jamie Cheung) - fake tears as they all drive out to an abandoned mine in the dead of night to deliver the punchline.

However, the prank turns sour and Megan is killed for real.

Jessica decides to hide the body and the tyre iron in the mine shaft and the other girls agree, apart from Cassidy who wants to call for help, but she is blackmailed into silence.

Several months later, the girls receive a chilling picture text, apparently from Megan.

One by one, they are stalked by a killer in a black graduation robe, wielding the same weapon used to slay their friend.

Sorority Row whittles down the pledges one by one, luring the girls and their boyfriends to their doom with surprising ease.

Most of the characters are painted in a negative light and therefore deserve their grisly fate, leaving behind the supposedly nice girls and guys for the final showdown.

Death sequences are gory without being gratuitous and there's a good variety to the demises, including an eye-watering adieu to Chugs that proves underage drinking can seriously damage your health.

The attractive cast remain remarkably composed and styled when they are slathered in blood and screaming for their lives.

ALSO SHOWING

DORIAN GRAY (15)

The corruptive power of celebrity casts a long, dark shadow over Victorian London in Oliver Parker's take on Oscar Wilde's gothic horror, adapted for the screen by Toby Finlay.

The set and costume designs are impressive, much more so than Ben Barnes - whose portrayal of the much-abused hero is more wooden than the frame of the infamous portrait.

The lifelessness of the main character is thrown into greater relief by Colin Firth's eye-catching supporting performance.

WHITEOUT (15)

A 60-year-old secret unravels in one of the most inhospitable places on Earth in Dominic Sena's explosive thriller, based on the graphic novel by Greg Rucka.

US Marshal Carrie Stetko (Kate Beckinsale) is the law on the Amundsen-Scott Research Station in Antarctica. Unexpectedly she discovers the body of a murdered man, miles from the camp. Carrie reluctantly leads her very first homicide case. With winter closing in, she races against time to unmask a killer in her midst with the help of Agent Pryce, whose motives aren't clear.

MISS MARCH (15)

A young man embarks on a quest for true love in Zach Cregger and Trevor Moore's bad-taste road movie.

High-school student Eugene Bell (Cregger) slips into a coma. Four years pass and he wakes from his slumber to find that the world has moved on without him. He embarks on a journey of self-discovery with scantily-clad females.

FISH TANK (15)

Andrea Arnold's follow-up to the award-winning Red Road surpasses that extraordinary movie and is one of the best films of the year, distinguished by tour-de-force performances especially from newcomer Katie Jarvis) and Robbie Ryan's beautiful cinematography.