Julie and Julia

So far I have skipped Hardball, Hope Floats, The Holiday and I Am Sam from my wife's collection because I have seen all them before. I enjoy the Jack Black/Kate Winslett story in The Holiday but I care very little for the rest. I Am Sam is fine but it is not a film I love and my dislike of Sean Penn makes me uninterested in seeing it again. Hardball is basically ghetto Mighty Ducks only I would rather watch Emilio than Keanu. It's probably been about 10 years or more since I saw Hope Floats and it remains one of my top ten least favorite movies of all time.
That brings me to Julie and Julia. I am going to try and watch movies from my wife's collection that I have not seen before, but that does not mean I am going to finish watching each one. With Julie and Julia, I made it about 40 minutes trying to watch it by myself while my wife was at work.
That sounds bad, but I am not totally condemning the film. Perhaps someday my wife will want to put it in and we will finish it together. I can at least recognize that while there is not much here for me to enjoy, it is a well made and well acted film.
Two things turned me off to the film early on. The first is Meryl Streep and her portrayal of Julia Childs, the American cooking aficionado who became something of a star in France being a lovable TV cook. I have no doubt that Streep's portrayal of the famed chief is spot on but that doesn't prevent me from finding her character (and her accent) obnoxious as I have very little knowledge of Mrs. Childs or very much appreciation for TV cooks. The question for me in regards to this character quickly became why do I care about someone I would not otherwise watch outside of this film. The answer is that I don't care and I found myself paying very little attention to her while she was on screen.
My other issue has to deal with the character of Julie and I have no doubt that my complaint will seem small and perhaps even stupid, but I lost interest in her character early on when she was at lunch with her friends. Each friend seemed too pre-occupied with there own lives to mentally be in attendance at this lunch and Julie seemed justifiably annoyed by this fact. What stood out to me in this scene was the stereotypical idea of how woman seemingly are constantly undermining or undercutting other woman. Julie is well educated and talented enough to have a manuscript for a novel in her desk (keep in mind that that is better than 99% of us) but a series of events have left her in a call center fielding calls from family members of 9-11 victims. Her friends seem as though they would pity her if they cared to and Julie seems to create her famous blog as an attempt to get back at her friends (in particular the "less talented" one who has her own successful blog). I am sure with time the movie would have focused on better things but as the story gains steam Julie takes several moments to take pot shots at her less talented "friend." 40 minutes in I was able to determine that I had no interest in this sorta thing.
There is a part of me that believes I should watch the film in it's entirety at some point as I would not put it the same category as a film like Hope Floats based on what I saw. It's closer to a Devil Wears Prada type film that is watchable but is clearly more relateable to woman than men. That's okay with me so long as there is a woman around to watch it with me.