By Colette Bouchez
DESPITE Oprah Winfrey’s endorsements, despite the fact that a zillion women bought into the premise, despite author Elizabeth Gilbert telling us ad nauseum that Eat,Pray, Love was just a simple little story chronicling the inner struggles we all share … for me, almost from page one, it seemed nothing more than a well written temper tantrum of a spoiled, selfish, over indulged, immature little whiner, with a self absorbed axe to grind and a publishing deal on which to grind it.
I’m sorry I know I am probably in the minority with this feeling. But I can’t help it.
And part of the reason I can’t help it is that the whole time Ms. Gilbert was referring to herself as this sort of mixed up, confused, soul-searching not to mention BROKE soul, I kept thinking to myself well yeah …but where I come from, BROKE means you don’t have bus fare to visit your sister in Altoona , let alone snag plane fare and hotel bills for a trip half way round the world. And once you get there have the money to do pretty much anything you want.
And Okay, I Get It – financial destitution IS all relative. I mean there’s Park Avenue and then there’s Park Row.
Still, by anyone’s definition, being jobless, homeless and fundless and still somehow find the funds to to fly to Italy, stuff your face with every delicacy on the menu and generally party your little butt off, and when you’re done take off for India and then Bali to do pretty much the same thing for months on end - all the while wearing a ton of new clothes which somehow you were able to snap out of your confused brain fog long enough to have purchased …well I don’t know about you, but in my book that doesn’t exactly spell BROKE , CONFUSED or exemplify the need for soul searching.
What it does do, however, is bring to mind another poor, lost confused soul that took us all on a similar joy ride to inner peace . His name was James Frey and the book was A Million Little Pieces. Need I say more?
So that was my first impression of Eat, Pray, Love: I wasn’t buying it. In fact I so wasn’t buying it I was pretty sure that anyone who decided to dig deep enough might even find that a book contract was actually place BEFORE this so-called soul-searching journey began – or at the very least a few emails confirming publishing interest. And I’m not saying there was mind you, but seeing how she was, after all a travel writer with lots of publishing industry contacts, I ‘m just saying I wouldn’t be at all surprised if there was one. That is how contrived this whole story seemed to me.
But let us now fast forward a couple years to August 2010 – and Eat, Pray, Love THE MOVIE is here. And before I say another word let me say that I adore Julia Roberts. I would watch Julia Roberts read the Yellow Pages because she is that good. And if anyone could make me believe that the mantra of Eat, Pray, Love was real and meaningful, it would be Julia Roberts.
Unfortunately, it didn’t happen for me. Not only did the movie NOT change my mind about the concept of Eat, Pray, Love, it confirmed my original feelings in a way even I did not expect : Somehow seeing it all up there in breathtaking cinematic glory, the spoiled, the indulgence, the ME ME ME and the premeditation of it all seemed even bigger AND MORE PREMEDITATED and more ME ME ME than before.
Now don’t get me wrong here ….Julia Roberts was fantastic in this movie. Warm, engaging and funny and fun to watch too. And the movie was great in terms of the cinematography, the directing, the scenery …. you WILL fall in love with Bali and Italy , and the trip to India – though short as it was - never looked more enticing. And you will want to go there.
But after the travelogue is done, the truth remains: No matter how Sony Pictures dresses it up, Eat Pray Love it is still nothing more than a trite, contrived tale of a spoiled, over indulged prima donna with a flair for the dramatic and clearly enough cunning to not only find her “inner peace”, but in the process use her newly minted soul searching skills to ferret out a top drawer book contract, a movie deal and now, a tchotchke contract with the Home Shopping Network.
Yes, wrapping up my original conviction about the true meaning of EPL, last week the Home Shopping Network began “Eating, Praying and Loving” via a collection of Elizabeth Gilbert-endorsed movie-promoting paraphernalia: Rings, bracelets, and other spiritual tchotchke with the words “Eat, Pray, Love” inscribed. As if we needed one more public relations reminder to do so.
And it was selling up a storm.
Who knew finding inner peace could be so lucrative?
See the movie if you like … Julia Roberts is delightful and beautiful and fun to watch. Just don’t expect it to change your life in any kind of meaningful way. In the end, Eat, Pray, Love is an entertaining fantasy designed to sell books, movies, junque jewelry and fabulous spa trips to Bali which hopefully you can one day afford to take. But really, that’s about it.
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I haven't seen the movie yet, but after refusing to read "Eat, Pray, Love" for months just because of all the hype around it, I finally gave in. Ironically, my husband announced our own divorce not long after.
ReplyDeleteI, too, wondered how on earth Gilbert afforded such a lavish year-long adventure. (According to http://bitchmagazine.org/article/eat-pray-spend, "Publisher Viking subsidized the “unscripted” yearlong vacation.") And I do remember reading somewhere in Gilbert's acknowledgements or perhaps the book's beginning that a publisher was paying for her trip so she could write the book.
So what about woman like me? In their 30s with no kids (and therefore no support and no home), especially those of us who lost our jobs in the recent recession? Who's going to offer me a book contract (I don't remember what Gilbert did before her travels, but I've at least worked as a writer!)? All I know is that Gilbert gained a lot from her experience, and although I may learn a lot from being alone, I'll be lucky if I can pay my rent, let alone travel the world.
Great post, Colette!