Julie & Julia (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) is the film score to the 2009 film Julie & Julia directed by Nora Ephron starring Amy Adams and Meryl Streep. The film score is composed by Alexandre Desplat and released through Sony Music Entertainment on August 4, 2009.
Contents
Background
Alexandre Desplat scored music for Julie & Julia and began working on the film during early-February 2009 amidst his multiple film scoring commitments. Desplat admitted scoring a comedy being difficult as he had to understand the limits and know when does the music become gimmicky or stupidly funny. Since both the stories, set in New York City and Paris being love stories, Desplat focused on the romantic side with the wit and lightness. Most of the time, the film's music is in a "gentle, soulful, Manciniesque mode". In 2021, Desplat considered the score to be his personal favorite as he tried to dwell into the clichés of France in the 1950s aided by an acoordinist to really play up to the traditional feel of that city.
Reception
Jonathan Broxton of Movie Music UK wrote "In the bigger scheme of things, Julie & Julia is an inconsequential work. It’s by no means a highlight of Desplat’s career – it’s not even his best score of 2009 – but it’s yet another example of Desplat’s seemingly endless knack for writing enjoyable score after enjoyable score." Filmtracks wrote "this is a breeze of a soundtrack that extends beyond the usual primary appeal to Desplat collectors to reach a mainstream audience interested in a safe musical souvenir from the film that overflows with cheer." Dana Stevens of Slate wrote "The score by Alexandre Desplat can get overly expressive, earnestly underlining the pathos or humor of moments that were doing just fine on their own."
Kirk Honeycutt of The Hollywood Reporter wrote "Alexandre Desplat's whimsical score make the film's two worlds inviting." Richard Propes of The Independent Critic wrote "Alexandre Desplat's original score is vibrant yet balanced across the film's different decades". Richard Knight Jr. of Windy City Times called it a "jaunty score". Stephanie Zacharek of Time wrote "In places, Alexandre Desplat’s score makes Ephron’s job harder than it needs to be: Desplat has written some beautiful scores (most notably that for The Painted Veil), but here, as Julie does things like reminisce about her mother’s version of Julia’s boeuf bourguignon, he resorts to twinkly piano stuff that hangs in the air with the heaviness of Glade." Sukhdev Sandhu of The Daily Telegraph wrote "Alexandre Desplat’s rippling score add to the bonhomie".
Personnel
Credits adapted from liner notes: