Why I Am Not Excited At All To Watch The Movie Version Of "Eat, Pray, Love"

Intent.com

Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman's Search For Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia, the best-selling memoir by writer Elizabeth Gilbert, is the ultimate emotional porn for women.

And like millions of other women, I ate up every single page of it. Finding yourself and falling in love after a very painful divorce? Encountering life-changing spiritual epiphanies while traveling solo in several exotic countries? Oh, yes, yes, YES! Give me MORE!

Needless to say, my heart sank when I heard that a movie version of the memoir was in the making and it was going to star Julia Roberts. When the movie trailer of Eat, Pray, Love finally came out on Apple trailers, my morbid curiosity compelled me to watch.


I am not excited at all to see this movie.

Gilbert's memoir works so well because it is exactly that: a memoir. It is a series of extraordinary events that so happened to a woman gifted with the ability of narrating her life experiences

in an extremely likable, down-to-earth tone that many people can relate to.

A fictional version of Eat, Pray, Love, where the same exact series of events happen to a made-up female protagonist, would be too cringingly cheesy to be true. Or is that just me?

While the book undoubtedly struck a chord more with female readers than male readers, this movie trailer suffers from estrogen overload. Julia Roberts being unhappy in a marriage! Julia Roberts spouting monologues on how she lost her passion for life! Naughty sexual innuendos! Very iStock photo-esque shots of a very beautiful Julia Roberts meditating on a pristine tropical beach!

I also can't get over the fact that I keep seeing Julia Roberts play Julia Roberts, not Julia Roberts play Elizabeth Gilbert.

Certainly, many beloved books have been madei into movies with lackluster results, and it is hardly an uncommon phenomenon in Hollywood. Why does this particular movie adaptation of this particular book feel like a thorn in my shoe?

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Written by Yumi Sakugawa for Intent.com

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