What a huge waste of money to film this mess, and an even bigger waste of time to see it.
Julia Robert’s character was a twit. Nothing whatsoever to like about her from the get-go. Without “spoiling” the so-called plot, she decides to drop everything and everybody and go off on some idiotic, poorly-planned quest for self discovery.
I have traveled extensively in my life and met many people who have far, far better stories to tell, and are not self-absorbed, clueless, ugly Americans with an AmEx card.
Her only altruistic moment in the film was also stupid - mind you, this is a woman who traveled amongst the poorest of the poor in India, but who does she decide to help? Someone who needs it to survive? No.
And does she use her own (seemingly unlimited) financial assets? No.
The only saving grace in this film was some nice exterior shots of Italy, India and Bali. However, you can save yourself money and time if you just flip on the Travel Channel and watch a few programs.
I hope to hell the book was better than this film.
Yes - Gay guy. My SO and I go to see a film almost every Friday - tradition from the old days when I worked for a film studio. We will see about anything - from action films to horror films, from heavy dramas to light comedies, foreign films, independent films, blockbusters and yes, even “chick flick” films. We figured, “hit book, Julia Roberts, big budget, travel - how bad could it be?”
Oh, if only we had known.
This ranks up there with one of the biggest film mistakes we have paid money to see in a very long time.
Women I know say much the same thing about the book - the Oprahfication of “insight” to the point where self-absorption is the only law, and is the justification of everything. This is coupled with taking the privileges of wealth for granted to the point of being utterly blind to the level of self-indulgence involved.
When members of the target audience whose views I respect reject it, I haven’t been inspired to read it or watch it.
I’m female, and have not read the book, but I did enjoy the movie. I admit that it wasn’t particularly deep, although there was one particular insight in the “Pray” segment that really resonated with me, and that I have now adopted in my daily life.
I agree that Julia Roberts’ character is shallow, but she also was relatable for me and fun to watch. I was particularly disappointed in the movie’s ending, which is somewhat amusing since the ending is based on the author’s true story. In this case, truth definitely makes a worse movie than fiction.
I don’t know that I’d recommend it, except perhaps to a very specific audience, but I don’t feel it was a waste of time.
My mom lent me that book when I first got back to the US from being in the Peace Corps. I admit I was in the middle of a reverse culture clash and shocked by all of the excess and emphasis on unimportant frippery that’s everywhere in the US, but I read the first couple chapters of the book and absolutely LOATHED the narrator and her self-absorption. The movie looks just as awful.
It’s really a despicable movie. Beyond just being a trite and vacuous chick flick, it promotes a loathesome kind of self-centered woo woo, morally bankrupt, fake spirituality.
Following an asinine, woo woo introductory scene with some dipshit, cliched, magical movie guru, a spoiled, rich, narcissistic cunt abruptly dumps her loving, decent husband for absolutely no reason (following another woo woo scene that’s just too obnoxious to describe), then has a brief affair with James Franco before dumping him for no reason as well.
She goes to Italy to pretend her anorexic ass enjoys eating food for a while, then goes to India to learn more superficial woo and pretend to meditate in a fashionable ashram for superficial, self-absorbed mediatation tourists like Julia Roberts. This is where the most despcicable subplot of the movie occurs involving a girl being forced into a fake marriage, which the Roberts character encourages and tells the girl basically to stop whining about it. Then she has the nerve to tell this girl after her wedding that her “gift” to her was that she “channeled her love” at the couple during the ceremony. If there’s any greater possible example of Oprahfied, self-absorbed, narcissistc, self-gratififying, ethiically vacuous, woo woo dogshit, I don’t know what it is.
Then she goes off to Bali (because she resolves all her spiritual problems after about two weeks at the ashram, and it all involved “channeling her love” at people), she goes off to Bali to bone Javier Bardem and discover, in true chick flick tradition, that she can’t be complete without a man, but you’ll probably be falling asleep by then.
All I could think was where the hell was Joran Van der Sloot when you need him?
I had a nearly identical reaction, minus having your Peace Corps experience.
A friend with similar tastes recommended the book, and I just couldn’t get over how me-me-me-me-me the narrator was. I really didn’t finish the book; when I read the reviews on Amazon and it was said that she found a man at the end I couldn’t roll my eyes high enough in my head.
Utterly trite crap masking itself as something profound.
I can’t stand these types of books or movies. I’m so glad I didn’t go see it with my mom and sister after reading this thread. I am sure my mom will by the DVD the minute it’s out and tell me once again that I “just have to see this movie”. :rolleyes: