'Julie and Julia' (PG-13) (out of four)

On many levels, "Julie & Julia" is a love story. It's about relationships with food, marriage, wide-eyed ambition, dreams and desires. It's even about the love affair between fans and the celebrity objects of their affection.

Cleverly crafted by writer-director Nora Ephron, the story connects two lives although the two women never meet. Based on Julie Powell's 2005 book "Julie & Julia" and interlaced with famous television chef Julia Child's 2006 memoir "My Life In France," Ephron is able to parallel two slices of life that unfold in different time periods and in different time zones.

Julie's story begins with a disenchanted about-to-turn-30 New Yorker who is working at an insurance company soon after 9/11. Caught up in boring bureaucracy, the wannabe novelist decides that she needs structure in her life and in 2002 decides, with the encouragement of her husband, Eric, to write a blog about cooking. It will give her a regime and something to do. She'll cook her way through all 536 recipes in Julia's 684-page book, "Mastering the Art of French Cooking," and document the experience.

She begins a daily blog titled "The Julie/Julia Project." First entry dated Aug. 25, 2002 -- "'The Book: "Mastering the Art of French Cooking.' Simone Beck. And, of course, Julia. Its the book that launched a thousand celebrity chefs. Julia taught America to cook and to eat. It's 40 years later. Today, we think we live in the world Alice Waters made, but beneath it all is Julia, 90 if she's a day, and no one can touch her."

She writes then about herself. "The Contender: Government Drone by Day, Renegade Foodie by Night.' Too old for theatre, too young for children, and too bitter for anything else, Powell was looking for a challenge. And in the Julie/Julia Project she found it. Risking her marriage, her job, and her cats' well-being, she has signed on for a deranged assignment. "

When the film opens, moviegoers are transported back in time to Paris 1948. Julia (Meryl Streep) and her devoted husband, Paul (Stanley Tucci), in their blue Buick station wagon are moving into an apartment at 81 Rue de l'Universite. And the parallels begin. Julie's story begins as she and Eric have packed up their belongings, including a copy of "Mastering the Art of French Cooking" that Julie (Amy Adams) has stolen from her mother, to begin life in a small loft in Queens, N.Y.

Another quasi connection is brought to the fore. Julia had also worked in government service in a clerical job, and does not want to return since moving to Paris, so she tries her hand at other things including hatmaking classes, bridge classes, French lessons and eventually signs up for cooking classes. But when the first lesson is how to boil an egg, the confident Julia decides she'd be more at home with the professional chefs at the famed Cordon Bleu. They are all male, by the way.

Streep as Julia once again rises to the occasion. In a sing-songy voice that's more lilting than annoying, and capturing Child's throaty delivery and subsequent chuckle, the laughs in "Julie & Julia" are definitely at Julia's expense. Yet the venerable actress never creates a caricature of the 6-foot-2 cooking giant. It's gentler than that.

"I'm growing before your eyes," Streep chortles as Julia during a meal with Paul as they devour Sole Meuniere in a French bistro. It is this pinnacle dinner (in the film, and, by the way in real life) that becomes the culinary turning point for Julia, America's first lady of French cuisine.

There are dollops of Child's triumphs and tribulations, despite the center of the story really revolving around Powell's identity crisis. During Julia's tableaus, we see the animosity between her and the headmistress at the Cordon Bleu, who insults the cook on her abilities.

There's Julia's sister (Jane Lynch), who marries and becomes pregnant, and upon receiving the news, Julia crumples on Paul's shoulder in tears. It's a poignant moment -- a mixture of her own longing for children, yet joy for her sister's good fortune. There is also the happy marriage to Paul, which withstands constant uprooting to other places and scrutiny by the U.S. government during the Sen. Joseph McCarthy witch hunt era. "Are you a homosexual?" they ask Paul during a hearing.

Despite Ephron's attempt to give the women equal screen time, however, moviegoers will most likely take away more from Powell's mastering the art of life through making Child her muse.

After hosting New York Times food reporter Amanda Hesser (who plays herself in the movie) for dinner, Hesser's story launches Julie into the big time. Powell's small answering machine in her cramped apartment is abuzz with editors and television show producers. Publishing houses and television networks want to talk to her about book deals and interview her about the lofty undertaking. She's arrived, although small heartbreak is just around the corner. Another message informs Julie that Julia, while being interviewed for an article in a Santa Barbara newspaper, said that Julie's blog was "glib and unserious."

Adams captures the disenchanted Julie making her relatable, heroic, and exasperated at the daunting task she's set up for herself. One particularly funny scene, played to aplomb by Adams, and underscored by the Talking Heads song, "Psycho Killer," finds Julie at a crossroads of humaneness towards the live lobsters she must boil and kill to re-create Child's Lobster Thermador. The disaster of overcooking Child's most famous dish, boeuf bourguignon, also tugs at the heartstrings.

Ephron has created a near perfect soufflé with "Julie & Julia." It's light where it needs to be, a little heavy at others, but never overbaked. One criticism would be that there were almost too many ingredients that needed to be stuffed into a 127 minute film. In the end, however, it's satisfying and perfect summer fare. So, enjoy the film, and as Julia would say, bon appétit.