To come clean, we are opinionated about the travel movies we love. For that matter, we’re opinionated about exotic-locale movies we hate, based just on the preview. But after we posted our snarky “SATC2″ piece, we noticed that the collective girl-movie-bashing may be getting a squinch overheated (we’re looking at you, Lindy West).
Other people have made this point, of course, including the always-brilliant Emily Nussbam and the Guardian. We knew, going in, that “Eat Pray Love” was doing to fit all the stereotypes of a chick flick, and as Jezebel and EW so aptly summarized, “if women like it, it must be stupid.”
So–what did we actually think of the movie, the book, the whole Elizabeth-Gilbert-theme park that is “Eat Pray Love”?
Betty: I’m just going to say it: I loved Julia’s clothes. I couldn’t stop obsessing over them. She was so appropriately dressed for traveling as a 30-something woman, especially when they were on the beach at the end. She looked like a real traveler who had ditched her foundation months ago.
Lia: Yeah, totally. She made the flowing linen look reasonable. And there wasn’t a single fugly reversible travel dress in the lot.
I will say that I was kind of poised to hate it, even though I can admit that I read the book. Then I saw the ad in the New York Times and was like: Huh. They totally got what it’s like to travel to a place you’ve always dreamed of visiting. Have you seen the ad?
Betty: Nope.
Lia: She’s sitting eating gelato in Rome, and there’s nothing that tells you that except the architecture nearby and the nun on the park bench, plus the oh-my-god-I’m-actually-here face. I also liked that even though her Bali rental was off-the-hook insane, her Rome apartment was crappy. I’ve also heated up a bathtub in a hostel with water from the stove, so I liked that too.
Betty: Yes. And I have totally had a crazy pseudo land lady who had puritanical rules about no boys allowed. But I was prepared to hate the part in India.
Lia: Because of the New Ageyness? I know that’s not a word.
Betty: Because the scene on the rooftop in the book was SO ANNOYING, her asking forgiveness of her ex and him coming to her. And then, of course, while watching the movie…I sobbed.
Lia: Me too. And I sobbed to Neil Jackass Young, which is so much worse. Even as I was doing it, I was like: I hate you a little, Elizabeth Gilbert.
And speaking of things that are annoying: Javier. He has a disturbingly giant head. It filled the entire screen. Like, at some points in the movie, didn’t it feel like his giant eagle head was eclipsing the scenery? And that his face is made up of 50 percent eyeballs?
Betty: As you know, Lia, I love him. Loved him in “Vicki Christina Barcelona.” He was so hot in that. I couldn’t wait for face time in EPL. But what happened to him? Did he marry Penelope and all of a sudden his face became the biggest face in the world? Did he recently get work done because of a massive boxing accident? Is he suddenly Mickey Rourke? It’s confusing.
Lia: It will probably kill you to hear this, but I couldn’t make it all the way through “Vicki Christina Barcelona.”
Betty: WHAT!?
Lia: I was like: Why is ScarJo trying so hard to sound like Woody Allen? Ohhhh right. I gave it 45 minutes and then gave up.
But back to EPL. Why do you think so many people hate it? I mean, I liked it for what it was: A pretty travel movie with some New Age philosophy thrown in. It was like the movie equivalent of visiting the Body Shop. Why the hate?
Betty: They’re jealous of her success, and they don’t want to hear about a woman calling bullshit on her crappy marriage. Plus, I think the New Age bit threw some people. Also, in the book, it’s unclear whether or not she cheated on her husband and people LOVE TO JUDGE THAT.
Lia: I also blame the audience, just like I do with “Twilight.” Fun film + some obsessed idiot fans = tacky, mockable, out-of-control spectacle. Whenever the Balinese healer would come on, the ladies–and it was all ladies–in the audience would coo, like he’s a baby. I think a girl actually said out loud: “He’s so cuuute.” Honey, he’s a grown man, not Justin Bieber. Along those lines of the fans being kind of gross, did you see this Louis Black bit from last night, about the Home Shopping ELP-a-thon?
| The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | Mon – Thurs 11p / 10c | |||
| Back in Black – Eat, Pray, Love | ||||
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Betty: Nice. The merch situation is out of control. Eat Pray Love Shop™. Yikes.
Lia: But can I just say, looking at the haters on rottentomatoes.com (which gave the movie a 38% positive) that I refuse to take advice from Boomers like these. The reviewer from that site, who’s listed on rottentomatoes, actually liked it. But she used a Calgon reference, as in “Calgon take me away.” Hello. Calgon was last sold in a store in 1976. Time to update the database.
I do think, when I look through these reviews and see Peter Travers–another soulless Boomer who needs to retire–that if the movie had a gun fight or car chase he would totally love it.
Betty: Exactly. I also loved how she found community in each place. You and I have talked about this. People romanticize traveling alone, but it’s actually not always fun.
Lia: Yes. I liked that too.
I know I keep going back and forth, but one thing I didn’t like I was feeling actively manipulated, both by the book and by the movie. Both Elizabeth Gilberts were trying too hard to be charming.
Betty: I hear what you’re saying, but she doesn’t have to be perfect to write a book. I mean, for Christ’s sake, this is the woman who brought us “Coyote Ugly.”
Lia: Are you kidding? I didn’t know that.
Betty: Can I just say that pic of her at TED bugs me to no end?
Lia: Honestly? I thought her entire TED talk was barfy. When you put “genius” in the title of your talk, you’re kind of calling yourself a genius. Um, no.
That stuff reminds me of what I didn’t like about the book, that kernel of super-annoying myopicness. I almost gave up on the book when she compared her divorce to 9/11. I was like: Really? REALLY?
Betty: Lia, my past job was the Holocaust. I hope you don’t mind me saying that.
Lia: I’m going to ignore that. But I still come back to the fact that she wrote this book, and it’s kind of not her fault that it blew up into this giant pop-culture moment.
Betty: I’ll just be honest. I really want to go to Bali now.
Lia: What do you say to people who argue that Elizabeth Gilbert “ruined” Bali?
Betty: I think those people need to get a grip. Did Hemingway ruin Paris? No.
Lia: That. Is awesome.
Betty: I just think it’s a cop out. I don’t think it ruins places. People like to go to awesome places.
Lia: I also think that if her memoir was published by McSweeney’s in a limited edition felt-covered book, it would be a cult classic. But because she went on Oprah and TED, people hate her.
Betty: Absolutely.
Lia: I heard this joke that seems appropriate: How many hipsters does it take to screw in a light bulb?
A number that you totally wouldn’t have heard of.
Betty: Ha.
Lia: I think that’s her deal. She went from like, tiny Radiohead to GIANT STADIUM RADIOHEAD, and people hated her for that, too.
Betty: Right. you don’t see her acting all Jonathan Franzen-ish. She’s like: BRING ON THE PUBLICITY. I’M AWESOME.
Lia: This is also a stupid thing, but I also think it’s because she smiles in her author photos, and looks kind of all-American, glowing, and healthy, when you’re supposed to look like Ellen Page, only poutier. Or, to be honest, if you’re writing a travel book, you should be a dude who’s also done war reporting. And have a graying goatee or those tan lines around your eye wrinkles. In other words, Bill Bryson or Sebastian Junger.
Betty: Totally. OK, one more small thing: How much did you love her bicycle riding?
Lia: Yeah, knowing how obsessed I am with bikes like hers, you can probably guess that I was singularly focused on it as she rode up. But then it distracted me. I was like: Do people really not lock their bikes in Bali?
Betty: People don’t lock their bikes in Thailand.
Lia: My internal dialogue continues through the whole scene: If her bike got stolen, could they identify it? Was it a rental, in which case it was too crappy to steal? It overrode the entire scene. Bike-theft concerns.
Despite all these issues, I still fundamentally liked the movie, and would add it to our recommended travel movie list.
My movie capsule review would be: The movie drags in some super-talky parts, the clothes and scenery are pretty, she didn’t love her husband any more, and she tried to become the hero of her own life. That’s it.
Betty: Love that. Hero of her own life. Exactly.
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