http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iZzmqHJ0gPU
Okay,, so that ^^^ is the trailer....you can watch, but, read what I write first, I want your opinion to be biased, but only because I'm right. Soon, you too will want to punch every Eat, Pray, Love billboard .
So it's a Julia Roberts film, clearly it's a feel good chick-flick based on a feel good chick-book. I've never read the book so don't go jumping down my throat about how the book was soo different, because I honestly wouldn't know/care. This post is only related to my thoughts on the trailer for the movie.
First thing I noticed: trusty black girlfriend. She's in a lot of the "post-racial" chick flicks, or some variation of her. There she is, with her sassy black girlfriend advice, only there to listen to helpless ass Julia Roberts whine about how empty her life is because she can't seem to not have a man (???). I know at least three single girls who would punch Julia Roberts/the main character of the movie in the face for having that problem.
*End of Digression*
Second thing I noticed: So she's having life problems and decides to travel, which is all well and good, but then she goes to these "far-off" and "exotic" places to "find herself." She goes to Bali and India (I realize I'm skipping the Italy part), and other places full of interesting POC with their own freaking lives to "find" herself." Like these people don't have anything better to do other than color the story of what would have been a bland,white tourist vacation.
Third thing I noticed: Fetishizing eastern culture in general, just using Bhuddism, Hinduism, and other forms of eastern spirituality to solve her trivial ass life problems. It's so narcissistic and pretentious, it's like every white person's traveling wet dream. To not be just some "tourist" but to meet the "locals" and "learn their ways," to discover the "True meaning of life." Then, to shrug at their poverty, or somehow do something absolutely useless to try to fix it, and then go back to America to suck down hot dogs, find another (white) husband, and talk really loudly in the mall on their iPhones.
Conclusion/ Stuff that doesn't fit in the other three: Critics have already pointed out how freaking self-absorbed this book is but it's just maddening that so few of them miss the point entirely on the racist overtones in the book/film/preview. They just go on to point out how's it's wrong to think a depressed lady is self-absorbed, and blah blah blah. I've read books about depressed people. I've read books about traveling. I've read books about India. If this preview, and the reviews of the book are anything to go by, this franchise sucks at writing about all three.
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