Eat Pray Love (2010)
If you liked the female-empowerment flick Under the Tuscan Sun, you’ll absolutely love Eat Pray Love. I can’t stand either, but I’ve never had much of a stomach for estrogen-fests with extremely selfish, self-serving heroines who are supposed to be admired. There’s a strong distinction between taking care of yourself and leaving chaos in your wake. Both women in both movies don’t care about the messes they make, but instead spontaneously decide to “find themselves” by losing themselves in a foreign environment and a new love affair.
Julia Roberts is unhappy at home with her handsome hubby Billy Crudup, so she gets a divorce and has a fling with James Franco. Dating someone new is exciting because he doesn’t know all your flaws yet and you don’t have to reveal anything unpleasant if you don’t want to. It doesn’t mean he’s better for you than your past partner, and it doesn’t mean you’re changing and growing. She could have saved herself thousands of dollars, and saved her readers and movie audiences from witnessing her mistakes, since all she seemed to want to do was have an affair with a new handsome man. Instead, she decides to find her happiness by traipsing all around the world, rather than just getting some therapy. Before her trip, she proved that her entire trip is completely unnecessary; going to bed with James Franco didn’t turn her into a new woman, so why will going to bed with Javier Bardem?
These types of trips are self-indulgent vacations, not journeys to find oneself. Finding oneself involves digging down deep no matter what view is outside your hotel window, getting to know your flaws, and figuring out how to change as you struggle through life’s hardships. Finding oneself does not involve eating oily pizza, buying new jeans, and hopping in bed with a stranger. If the message of the movie was, “Let’s take a vacation!” I wouldn’t have hated it so much, but to fill unhappy women with such a righteous falsehood is dangerous.
Julia Roberts is unhappy at home with her handsome hubby Billy Crudup, so she gets a divorce and has a fling with James Franco. Dating someone new is exciting because he doesn’t know all your flaws yet and you don’t have to reveal anything unpleasant if you don’t want to. It doesn’t mean he’s better for you than your past partner, and it doesn’t mean you’re changing and growing. She could have saved herself thousands of dollars, and saved her readers and movie audiences from witnessing her mistakes, since all she seemed to want to do was have an affair with a new handsome man. Instead, she decides to find her happiness by traipsing all around the world, rather than just getting some therapy. Before her trip, she proved that her entire trip is completely unnecessary; going to bed with James Franco didn’t turn her into a new woman, so why will going to bed with Javier Bardem?
These types of trips are self-indulgent vacations, not journeys to find oneself. Finding oneself involves digging down deep no matter what view is outside your hotel window, getting to know your flaws, and figuring out how to change as you struggle through life’s hardships. Finding oneself does not involve eating oily pizza, buying new jeans, and hopping in bed with a stranger. If the message of the movie was, “Let’s take a vacation!” I wouldn’t have hated it so much, but to fill unhappy women with such a righteous falsehood is dangerous.
Since this is based off a memoir, there are some moments that will make women in the audience chuckle at their realism. Very few movies acknowledge the reason for bladder infections, and while it’s a funny scene, it doesn’t help Julia realize she’s looking outside herself for happiness. And while it’s supposed to be amusing to see her struggle to figure out how to eat thin-crust pizza, it makes you wonder what rock she was living under in the United States. Who hasn’t eaten thin-crust pizza by the time they’re in their forties?
In Italy, Julia eats. In India, she prays, and in Bali, she falls in love. Once again, I find the message offensive to different cultures—but only because it’s supposed to be so profound and inspiring. There’s no reason why she couldn’t find love in Venice and inner peace while staring up at the Vatican. Why couldn’t she have fallen in love in India and discovered a love of that cuisine? It’s very stereotypical, to devalue three countries into one simple word apiece. Italy is only good for its food, India is Gandhi, and in Bali, you can prance around in a sarong and find a good time.
Everything in this film revolves around the heroine’s selfishness and what she wants at the moment. As she’s packing her backs in America, her best friend Viola Davis doesn’t send her full support and cautions her that running away isn’t the brave thing to do. Viola’s arguments are completely right, but the screenplay destroys the courage it took to tell her best friend the harsh truth; she admits that she’s actually jealous of Julia’s freedom to abandon everything and put herself first. Problem solved: Julia’s doing the right thing! Julia meets Richard Jenkins during her praying segment, and he tells her his tragic story of how his own selfishness and bad choices destroyed lives. He says he ran away from his problems, too, and has been searching for inner peace for years. While I was left thinking that he took the coward’s way out and was still being selfish rather than accepting his misery and trying to atone to those he hurt, the rest of the audience was supposed to think he was enlightened and did the right thing. Problem solved: if you hurt people, you can run away and focus on yourself and think you’ve become an evolved person!
If Julia Roberts merely took a vacation, or if she had a buddy trip with Viola and she took more chances than her reserved friend, it might have been a cute movie. For a journey of enlightenment and personal struggle, it would have been a better movie if she’d stayed at home and had long talks with a therapist, her friends who have enabled her behavior, and her husband who kept her stuck in a place that no longer makes her happy. That wouldn’t have entertained most people, I suppose, but it also wouldn’t have taught women to look outside themselves for momentary happiness.
More James Franco movies here!
In Italy, Julia eats. In India, she prays, and in Bali, she falls in love. Once again, I find the message offensive to different cultures—but only because it’s supposed to be so profound and inspiring. There’s no reason why she couldn’t find love in Venice and inner peace while staring up at the Vatican. Why couldn’t she have fallen in love in India and discovered a love of that cuisine? It’s very stereotypical, to devalue three countries into one simple word apiece. Italy is only good for its food, India is Gandhi, and in Bali, you can prance around in a sarong and find a good time.
Everything in this film revolves around the heroine’s selfishness and what she wants at the moment. As she’s packing her backs in America, her best friend Viola Davis doesn’t send her full support and cautions her that running away isn’t the brave thing to do. Viola’s arguments are completely right, but the screenplay destroys the courage it took to tell her best friend the harsh truth; she admits that she’s actually jealous of Julia’s freedom to abandon everything and put herself first. Problem solved: Julia’s doing the right thing! Julia meets Richard Jenkins during her praying segment, and he tells her his tragic story of how his own selfishness and bad choices destroyed lives. He says he ran away from his problems, too, and has been searching for inner peace for years. While I was left thinking that he took the coward’s way out and was still being selfish rather than accepting his misery and trying to atone to those he hurt, the rest of the audience was supposed to think he was enlightened and did the right thing. Problem solved: if you hurt people, you can run away and focus on yourself and think you’ve become an evolved person!
If Julia Roberts merely took a vacation, or if she had a buddy trip with Viola and she took more chances than her reserved friend, it might have been a cute movie. For a journey of enlightenment and personal struggle, it would have been a better movie if she’d stayed at home and had long talks with a therapist, her friends who have enabled her behavior, and her husband who kept her stuck in a place that no longer makes her happy. That wouldn’t have entertained most people, I suppose, but it also wouldn’t have taught women to look outside themselves for momentary happiness.
More James Franco movies here!