Julie & Julia

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Julie & Julia Goofs/Mistakes

Movie Goof (errors made by characters, possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): In the movie, Paul Child (II) references his work with "General Mountbatten." There was no such person in the British Army during WWII; there was however, Admiral Louis Mountbatten of the Navy.
Movie Goof (crew or equipment visible): (At 03:20) When Julie Powell and her husband are driving in their jeep to the new apartment, you can see the camera that is secured to the car in the lower right hand corner. Its a visible shadow and you are able to see the camera lens reflection.
Movie Goof (anachronisms): The opening scenes of the movie clearly state that we are in Paris in 1949. The Buick station wagon is a 1950 model (identifiable by the squared portholes in the hood - not round portholes in the fenders - and the "malocclusion" chrome grille). Even allowing that the model year began in September then, it's highly unlikely the Childs would have had a brand-new 1950 Buick available to be shipped to France.
Movie Goof (revealing mistake): The scene involving Paul Child (II)'s photographing a food display in their kitchen, he uses a Rolleiflex camera. While shooting he winds the crank approximately one-and-a-half turns, when loaded with film the transport only requires 2/3 of a turn and stops automatic. So actually he was using an empty camera.
Movie Goof (factual errors): The film has Judith Jones (II) stand Julie Powell up due to bad weather. Jones told the Boston Globe in August 2009 that, in fact, she had wanted to meet Julie "because I wasn't sure how you put a blog together and I also wanted to talk about recipe rights", but canceled because "Julia Child looked at her blog and didn't think Julie was a serious cook. There were all these four-letter words - that isn't how you describe food if you care and if you're a good writer. Julia thought we shouldn't have anything to do with it."
Movie Goof (anachronisms): The postal vehicle appearing in front of the Cambridge house, a DJ5, was not used until 1965. The scene in the movie is 1961 or earlier.
Movie Goof (anachronisms): Throughout the film, Paul Child (II)'s glasses can be seen to have a modern anti-reflective coating on them, years before such coatings became available. The tell-tale green sheen on the lenses is particularly visible during the outdoor wedding party.
Movie Goof (errors made by characters, possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): Julie Powell adds a whole bay leaf when cooking Julia Child's classic boeuf bourguignon when the recipe calls for a crumbled bay leaf.
Movie Goof (anachronisms): The movie opens in 1949 in Paris. In several establishing shots, including the Ile de la Cite and Notre Dame Cathedral, all the buildings appear to be a light tan sandstone color. Until the cleaning projects by culture minister Andre Malreaux in the late 1960s, all the famous buildings in Paris were quite black from centuries of pollution.
Movie Goof (revealing mistake): In the scene where Julia Child (Meryl Streep) is checking out their new bed we see her kick off her shoes and lay down, the shoes in that scene are clearly not the ones she had on when she got out of the car, upon their arrival but the specially made lifts that Streep had to wear in order to appear taller. You'll notice that in many scenes the view of her legs/feet are obscured to hide the lifts, but not in this scene.
Movie Goof (revealing mistake): When Julia Child is with the other 2 women in the kitchen while being lectured on how to boil an egg, she is clearly standing on a platform to make her taller than the other women, as evidenced by her ankles.
Movie Goof (anachronisms): In the scene where Julia Child receives a letter about publishing her first book in 1961 (or earlier). The letter carrier bears a blue and red patch with a horse and rider facing left. These patches did not come into service until 1965. The appropriate patch should be a maroon patch with the horse and rider facing the right (backwards) when warn on the left shoulder.
Movie Goof (anachronisms): In the scene when Julia Child is speaking to her French teacher in the library, she is using the word "salesperson". But this is a "gender-neutral" neologism created in the late 20th century. In 1950, an American would have used the word "saleslady" for "vendeuse".
Movie Goof (boom mic visible): When at the ritual cobb salad scene, the girl that is sitting directly across from Julie, the one with the sunglasses on her head, you can see the boom mic in the reflection of the sunglasses.
Movie Goof (continuity error): When Julia Child and Simca enter Louisette's apartment to meet Erma Rombauer, there is a bowl of strawberries on a side-table. In the next shot, Louisette is shown carrying the bowl of strawberries in from the other room.
Movie Goof (errors made by characters, possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): When cooking Julia Child's classic boeuf bourguignon, Julie Powell uses a Bordeaux or Bordeaux style wine rather than the burgundy or burgundy style wine (Pinot Noir) called for in all beef bourguignon recipes (including Child's).
Movie Goof (errors made by characters, possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): When making the famous boeuf bourguignon recipe, both Julie Powell and Judith Jones (II) use cloth towels to dry the beef, when the recipe specifically calls for paper towels. This is a minor change - and the recipe would not suffer as a result - but both women were taking care to follow Julia Child's instructions to the letter (although for very different reasons). Neither would have made the choice to change even the smallest detail of the recipe.
Movie Goof (revealing mistake): When Julia Child is teaching basic tasks with the other ladies at their cooking school, during the shot one can see the checkered platform under Julia's feet to make her appear taller.
Movie Goof (factual errors): While it is true that Julia Child and Paul Child (II) were early critics of Joseph McCarthy (II), the spat between Julia and her father over McCarthy at Dorothy's wedding reception is fiction. Although elected to the Senate in 1946, McCarthy was not a household name in 1951, when Dorothy got married, and simply did not have the kind of pull that would have forced Paul to go to Washington for questioning. Mr. McWilliams was, in fact, a supporter of Richard Nixon.
Movie Goof (anachronisms): At the beginning of the film, Julie Powell sits in her office cubicle speaking on the phone. At the background, Microsoft Word 2003 is opened on her computer (notice the bluish-rounded style with an amber highlight on the format task-bar). The scene is dated 2002, while Microsoft Office 2003 was released only on November 17, 2003, succeeding the grayish-rectangular styled Office XP.
Movie Goof (incorrectly regarded as a mistake): In the movie, Julie Powell wears her engagement ring before her wedding ring. While some consider this reversed, there is no set tradition for American women, and many wear their rings in this order.
Movie Goof (boom mic visible): When Julia Child is showing her co-authors a new recipe.
Movie Goof (revealing mistake): In the scene where Julie Powell is writing in her blog about being stood up by Judith Jones (II), she is typing on her laptop. In the close-up when she decides to press the delete key, the key appears to be that of a full-size keyboard, not a laptop.
Movie Goof (factual errors): While it is true that Mr. McWilliams did not approve of Julia Child marrying Paul Child (II), there is no evidence that he did not approve of Dorothy's choice of husband, as implied in the movie.
Movie Goof (anachronisms): When Julie writes her first article on her blog, she states that Julia Child's book was published in 1969. She then says that "it is forty years later", meaning it is 2009. The film is supposed to be set in 2002.
Movie Goof (revealing mistake): In most scenes Julia Child is shown to be a couple of inches taller than Paul Child (II). However, when they are getting up to dance following a fight with her father about Joseph McCarthy (II), they are side by side for a moment and Julia's shoulder is several inches below Paul's (because Meryl Streep is actually much shorter than the real Julia).
Movie Goof (revealing mistake): (At 28:00) Julie Powell is talking to her mom about blogging. All the sudden you hear the noise of the phone shutting off from the battery going dead. But when Julie looks at the phone and says "stupid battery", she pushes the off button (presumably) and you hear the noise as if it was just shut off. How can that happen if the battery already died?
Movie Goof (anachronisms): In the final scene, Julia Child opens a large envelope from her publisher with a copy of her first cookbook inside (published by Knopf, 1961). The envelope is of the Bubble-Wrap variety. Bubble-Wrap itself didn't receive the US Patent (Number 3,142,599) until July 28, 1964. Envelopes of that type started appearing in the late 70's.
Movie Goof (anachronisms): The Childs moved to Paris in 1948, not 1949 as shown.
Movie Goof (anachronisms): When Paul Child (II) is being questioned in Washington there is a pack of Lucky Strike in a green pack. Famously "Lucky Strike green went to war" because the ink contained chromium, a strategic material. Lucky Strike green never came back and the replacement design by Raymond Lowey in white which was introduced early in the war is still in use today and was in the 50s.
Movie Goof (errors made by characters, possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): When in Paris, Julia Child narrates that she would arise at 6:30 am with the alarm clock and be in cooking school by 7:30 am, however the alarm shows 6:15 am.
Movie Goof (errors in geography): In the opening scenes Julia Child and Paul Child (II) pull up to their Paris apartment. Their Parisian apartment was at 81 Rue de L'Université aka Roo de Loo. The apartment building the Childs pull up to in the film is number 10.