“Julie & Julia” is a bit of a letdown. Now, I could be biased because a) I’ve read the book of the same title by blogger Julie Powell that the film is partly based on (she’s the Julie in the title); b) I found Meryl Streep and Amy Adams’ previous collaboration in last year’s “Doubt” to be mesmerizing; and c) just like Julia Child, I love eating. All that being said, I still feel it’s fair to say that screenwriter-director Nora Ephron (“When Harry Met Sally”) could have done a much better job.

For the unfamiliar, Julia Child was an American TV chef who introduced French cooking to American families in the 1960s through her influential cookbook “Mastering the Art of French Cooking.” The film follows Child’s life in Paris, after her husband Paul was posted there by the US government. It was there that she enrolled herself in Le Cordon Bleu, the prestigious cooking school, and found her direction in life. Soon after that she discovered the opportunity to co-author what would eventually become a very well-known cookbook.

But that’s only half of “Julie & Julia.” Juxtaposed with the post-World War II era story is one set in post-9/11 New York, where a low-rank government clerk called Julie Powell, whose day job consists of consoling the families of 9/11 victims, finds her own direction in life, and decides to cook all 524 recipes in Child’s cookbook in 365 days while blogging about it.

Streep’s portrayal of Child goes beyond uncanny imitation; she somehow transcends the real Child and presents us with an even more likeable, cute and friendly incarnation. The underrated Stanley Tucci plays Child’s husband Paul, whose love, tolerance and support for Julia would make any woman jealous. And it’s impossible not to love the romantic backdrop of Paris in the 1950s. By contrast, while Adams gives a decent performance as Powell, her character simply isn’t very likable. She’s whiney and self-centered, and when she cries over Child reportedly hating her blog, we are not sympathetic. While the juxtaposition of Child’s and Powell’s lives may have worked for the book, it does not work in the movie. In the book, I actually empathized with Powell. If Ephron had made a film solely on the Childs, it would have been much more enjoyable.

3/5 Stars by Winnie Yeung.

(USA) Directed by Nora Ephron. Starring Meryl Streep, Amy Adams, Stanley Tucci, Chris Messima. Category IIA, 123 minutes.