- Another completely incorrect synopsis! Who writes these things? Liz is clearly not trying to get pregnant, she’s merely ruminating on how one comes to the decision that one is ready to have children. She is also clearly, blatantly not happy in her marriage.
- I did not dislike this movie as I expected to. One of the main concerns I feared was the self-indulgence and entitlement that seems implicit in a story of a woman who has the means and privilege to take a year off work to just travel the world and find herself. My concern was two-fold: first, that female fantasy in film often takes on this format and that criticism of this fantasy is something you wouldn’t see in a film aimed at men, but secondly that the movie would fetishize the “exotic” locales and play disrespectfully on brown guru tropes, etc.
To the first point, there’s a quickie moment where Liz is helming an American-style Thanksgiving dinner at her Italian tutor’s mother’s home and the mother is scorning Liz heavily for being divorced and taking such a self-indulgent trip. One of the other characters points out that rather than it being a frivolous or silly act, it’s actually a not-so-common instance in which a woman is allowed to even make a choice of this nature; no one would even be having those conversations if Liz were a man. (True.)
To the second point, there is a built in level of “the exotic will save you” in Liz’s travels. She eats in Italy, prays in India, and loves in Bali, but only in the latter two locations is she trying to achieve any kind of spiritual enlightenment. Not that there’s nothing wrong with merely enjoying good food and good friends when in Rome; not at all. But the other day I read a great quote via Tumblr that sort of sums up the problematic parts of this kind of thing:
But as her character complained that she had ‘no passion, no spark, no faith’ and needed to go away for one year, I couldn’t help wondering where do people in Indonesia and India go away to when they lose their passion, spark and faith? I don’t think they come to Manhattan. Usually third-worlders come to America to find education, jobs and to save enough money to send for their families to join them, not work out their kinks.
Indeed. The movie itself opens with Liz talking about her psychologist friend who was asked to provide counselling for Cambodian refugees and then claims that the refugees, who had been through genocide and famine and other atrocities, just wanted to talk about the drama of their love lives. Seriously?
I guess that while the movie does traffic in these kind of tropes that reinforce stereotypes, it still comes across infinitely better than the horrific displays of racism in that other movie about indulgent globetrotting women from earlier this summer. Liz, while obviously having a certain level of wealth in order to facilitate her lengthy vacation, doesn’t flaunt her money in people’s faces. She’s not booking herself into $22,000/night hotel rooms, she’s renting apartments that require scaffolding to hold the ceiling up. Her choices feed right into the thematic undertones of her life lessons, but it makes her infinitely more likable than anyone in the Sex and the City crew.
- Billy Crudup was pretty amazing in this in a Dennis Duffy kind of way. It’s so unfortunate that douches can be so hilarious on screen and so depressingly awful in real life.
- I, too, met a Swedish woman named Sofi on my recent trip to Europe. Hmm.
- The play James Franco’s character acts in at the start is priceless, especially the line about looking into Liz’s eyes and hearing dolphins clapping. OMG. YES.
- I found it a bit disingenuous for Liz to exasperatedly claim that she did not need a man when she was clearly five minutes away from getting together with another guy. Pro-tip: if you’re going on vacation to find out who you are outside of the context of a relationship? DO NOT GET INVOLVED WITH SOMEONE. In a variety of non-subtle ways we learn that in a relationship Liz loses herself in the man she’s with and I kind of kept expecting Richard Gere to show up and ask all her ex-boyfriends how she likes to eat her eggs.
- I need a wardrobe comprised solely of breathable, non-clingy fabrics. How comfortable must Julia Roberts have felt in those costumes? Ugh. I have a single pair of pants like that (with an elasticized waist, woot) and all I wanted to do was put them on.
- I was happy to discover that the drug smuggling babysitter from Goodfellas grew up to be a Liz’s divorce lawyer.
- Richard Jenkins was pretty tragic in this.
- There were actually a lot more genuine laughs to be had in this than I was expecting. Despite this, it’s funny to me that I keep seeing this referred to as a romantic comedy. If it centres around a woman and there are laughs and romantic elements, that’s enough for it to be a romantic comedy? Seriously? Female leads get one category of film and that’s it? Great.
Eat Pray Love
Definitely not as bad as I was expecting.
IMDB Plot Synopsis While trying to get pregnant, a happily married woman realizes her life needs to go in a different direction, and after a painful divorce, she takes off on a round-the-world journey.
wow….really great point about how all the criticism of the self-indulgence of the female travel fantasy wouldn’t have even come up if Liz were a man. I had a similar reaction when hearing about the book/movie–being troubled about Liz’s obvious privilege in being able to just take off and “find herself” in exotic lands, but I’m not sure I would have had quite the same reaction had she been a guy. Food for thought. Also, I just want to say I love all your movie reviews. Almost every single one, you say exactly what I’m thinking when I see these movies–only you’re generally much funnier
i’ve been planning to read the book this is based on since ursula vernon’s surprising enjoyment of it (http://www.redwombatstudio.com/blog/?p=4136). her views on the book echo yours on the film, so i’ll plan on netflixing this, too. (is that a verb?)
I highly recommend the book in conjuction with the movie. As usual, there’s so much subtext and behind-the-scenes thought processes that can’t be communicated in a movie. Liz talks about her commitment to celibacy during this year and how she struggles with it; her dismal track record of subsuming her own desires to conform to her current man’s needs; and her inspiring brushes with the Creator. Just started watching the movie, so I’m not sure how Ms. Roberts will stand up against my image of the narrator.