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Wednesday 22 September 2010

Eat. Pray. Love. Or Don't.


I admit, I havn’t read the book. So I can only whine about the film… Shortage of Champaign on the first place. No, the premiere evening started marvelous, it’s the “entracte” that was disappointing: they substituted prosecco with some fancy bite-size ice cream (it was “ladies night”, see)...but in the middle of the (very long) movie I was longing a minimum for a beer.

I was kind of confused. Something didn’t add up. The scenery was beautiful: lively Rome and Naples, spicy India and serene Bali… Julia Roberts was beautiful as always, and she went through trouble (or fun?) of gaining a few kilos for the film… And all those beautiful clothes she wore in Rome (plus endless matching accessories)! And I still didn’t like it.
Searching for a word to describe the film I couldn't come with a better one than “shallow”. I thought I am not getting it again (remember Ballet C de la B?...), so I looked up some reviews…Some of them were kind, mostly about the book. But critics can be so bitter, as if the director made all the faults just to spite them. Peter Travers (American film critic, who has written for People and Rolling Stone) referred to watching it as "being trapped with a person of privilege who won't stop with the whine whine whine." I am with Peter (I bet they didn’t serve him beer either).



Another word is “unrealistic”. It didn’t really fit to any style. Not funny enough for a comedy (apart from that Richard Jenkins bloke from Texas). Not tragic enough for a drama (again apart from the Richard Jenkins moments) . And the husband, the poor sod. I thought Roberts would come back after all the useless chanting (especially it was underlined quite clear). It would make sense then: Finding oneself, coming to the beginning, completing the circle, back to the roots, blah, blah.

Noooo, she finds a hunk in Bali instead, who happens to be divorced, vacant, AND with a jewelry business. And when he offers her a little boat trip (after two weeks of heavenly sex) she flips out and yells at him (Hey, Groceries, it’s the Javier Bardem you are yelling at!) as if he just told her she was fat (or something).

That was my impression of the day, sorry. Perhaps I should have had that ice cream after all. To sweeten the pill.

Have a lovely second half of the week :-)

AB

2 comments:

  1. Thank God you didn't like this movie!

    A better title would be "Eat, Pray, Puke."

    I do like some Chick Flicks. ("Steel Magnolias" comes to mind.)

    But a movie about some dissatisfied, vaguely "uneasy," privileged American woman traipsing all over the world (on the money the publisher advanced her for this drivel is inexcusable.

    She should have Eaten, Loved, the Prayed! And stayed in India and help feed poor people or something. Eck!

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  2. P.S.

    It just occurred to me...

    If you would have liked this movie, you would have forced your real friends to:

    "Travel--Kidnap--Deprogram."

    As expected, this will not be necessary.

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