Academy Awards nominee: Julie & Julia

Julia Child, the world's first celebrity chef, was the woman who taught Americans there was more to French cuisine than French fries thanks to her legendary recipe book Mastering the Art of French Cooking and numerous television series.

In Nora Ephron's Julie & Julia Meryl Streep plays the 6ft 2in cook, doing an uncanny impersonation of her distinctive, warbly voice and enthusiastic presenting style. Meanwhile Amy Adams plays Julie Powell, a New York blogger who documented her year-long attempt to cook each of the 524 recipes in Mastering the Art of French Cookery in 2002.

WHAT THE CRITICS SAID:Angie Errigo, Empire: "Streep is to die for, so funny, so touching, so brilliant - from her uncanny mimicry of Child's fluting, whooping voice to the subtle but heart-piercing way she suggests Julia's pain at being childless. The most pleasant surprise is Nora Ephron's direction, free of her cutesier signature touches and the running battles of the sexes. Not that there aren't girlie bits." (Verdict: four stars out of five)

Katha Politt, the Guardian: "What I loved most of all, though, was that Julie & Julia is that very rare thing, a movie centred on adult women, and that even rarer thing, a movie about women's struggle to express their gifts through work. Not a boyfriend, a fabulous wedding, a baby, a gay best friend, a better marriage, escape from a serial killer, the perfect work-family balance, another baby. Real life is full of women for whom work is at the centre, who crave creative challenge, who are miserable until they find a way to make a mark on the world."

AO Scott, the New York Times: "The unevenness of Julie & Julia is nobody's fault, really. It arises from an inherent flaw in the film's premise. Julie is an insecure, enterprising young woman who found a gimmick and scored a book contract. Julia is a figure of such imposing cultural stature that her pots and pans are displayed at the Smithsonian. The fact that Ms Ephron, like Julie herself, is well aware of this gap does not prevent the film from falling into it."

'Julie & Julia' is out on DVD on March 8.  ·