A Personal Note on “Julie and Julia”

Or, of why the film was tremendously inspirational to yours truly, here.

The image above, taken from my Facebook page, is my initial reaction toward “Julie and Julia.” While the film itself is sometime overtly dragging, especially in the middle *and* especially during Julia’s scenes, the very first thing that came into my mind after seeing this film was just like the above. Inspiring.

Even so, it’s not until my wife and one of my friend had seen the film on separate occasion that I started to appreciate how inspiring the film really is and I believe I’m not exaggerating when I said that this film is probably one of the most inspirational film I’ve seen in a long time.

What really inspiring for me, was simply the character Julie and it’s not merely because I had adored Amy Adams ever since I saw her for the first time in “Junebug” (2005). Sure enough, her filling the role made it far easier for me to love her character but, what really hits home was the fact that Julie remind me much of myself to which my wife made a comment that she too saw me in Julie and subsequently she saw herself as Julie’s sympathetic spouse.

“You never finish what you had started.” said Julie’s mother to her during her first efforts on “Julie Julia Project.” This particular scene immediately bought a smile, a superbly extra wide smile to my face because I am too, in my current age, scraping at the door of thirty, had never finished what I had started. Julie is blogger, I am too a blogger. Julie has passion to what she blogged about, and I believe that I am too had passion to what I blogged about. The difference was that she has found gold, and I hadn’t … and seven years has passed since I start blogging. Seven.

I know too damn well the feeling that Julie must’ve felt when her mother doubted her. I remember, only too well, that during my early years at blogging, one of my friend immediately scoffed at my efforts and my writings. At the time, he wrote a comment that consists only one word, “Bah!” at *each* of my reviews. When I asked him what does he mean, he just laughed at me, mocked me and said that I’m only wasting my time. It was devastatingly heartbreaking. I was sad, so freaking sad, that I was *this* close to stop. But of course, I didn’t. If only for the sole reason to deny him the satisfaction of being right, I kept writing. Therefore, in a way, he actually had helped me. Anyway, when he had stopped yammering at my reviews and found something else to bug, I had found my voice and joy in writing and dissecting movies. Now, seven years later, I just can’t stop even if I had wrote for no one. I only wrote for myself, but that was more than enough reason for me to keep going.

Drawing inspiration from “Julie and Julia,” I had vowed that my general failure of keeping my goals, to never finish what I had started need to be stopped right away if I want to achieve any form of success in my life. Easier said than done, obviously, for we’re talking about a twenty-eight years long habit of mine to procrastinate but Julie had shown me how to properly (and systematically) overcame the habit. In the film, she had picked a simple, measurable goal to herself. Her goal is precisely numbered, to which at any time she would know how far she shorted on it. Totally unlike my ‘goal’ which usually consists of vague description, and totally unmeasurable (asked me how much progress I had made on my goal, in percentage, and I would’ve no idea how to answer). So, I figured, I need to have a simple measurable goals as well, in order to measure how much I fail before readjusting my goal. Thus, here’s *one* of my measurable goal. I want to see at least 300 new films this year, and blog about it. Simple (I mean, I considered myself pretty passionate on film, watching 300 new films in a year? Easy), and measurable (as of now, I had seen 19 new films which left me at 281 films to go. Precise). Stupid goal, eh? But remember, it’s only *one* of my goal which more or less, as were the other goals I currently had, was helped by Julie to set. I mean, you can’t be more inspirational than that. Drastically changing the way I live my life, over a film? If that wasn’t inspirational, then I don’t know what is.

On a final note, to my wife. She’s the butter of my bread, the breath of my life. In the film, Julie’s spouse was as sympathetic as you could possibly get. He let Julie chases her dream, no matter how ridiculous it may’ve sounds to him. He gave her ample of space, and he gave her a total support. In short, if Julie was an artist on a stage, with a blaring spotlight upon her, her spouse was these invisible hands that keep everything worked perfectly, the costume man, the lightning man, the curtain man, everything. You won’t know them, but you’ll know the artist, the one in the spotlight. That was Julie’s spouse (see, I don’t even remember his name), and that was my wife. That’s why I love her, and I’m so goddamned lucky I’ve found her.

P.S. Sometime in 2009, I was offered to write reviews for StarWorld Asia. I wasn’t too enthusiastic about it so I had left the opportunity un-pursued. Truth is, I was afraid. To make commitment, to be not able to deliver something profound or monumental to things I had loved most. Writing and films. However, I had put the communique (emails) in a special case, printed in gold, and framed on my wall. A reminder that sometime ago, someone out there had read my writing efforts and considered them to be good enough to be hired A reason for me to keep going, following the steps shown to me by the likes of Julie. Now, tell me that wasn’t inspirational.

Jakarta,
January 29th, 2010
21:20 local time.
Rhama Arya W.