
I read Elizabeth Gilbert’s best-selling Eat Pray Love, and I loved it (well, most of it). I could connect with Liz, and feel her pain, her joy, and ultimately her love.
I waited until last night to see the big screen movie adaptation of the book, and I had high hopes.
I like Julia Roberts. I was talking about the movie with my mom about a week ago, and she said “but Julia Roberts isn’t a good actress.” I said “what are you talking about! There was that movie…” and I drew a blank. I mean I guess she was good in Erin Brockovich, no arguing that – she won the Oscar. But ever since – has she been great in many movies? Not really.
When I heard she had been cast to play Liz, I thought it was perfect casting. It would be a good opportunity for Julia to flex her acting muscles. But the whole time I was watching the movie, I couldn’t get past all the Juliaisms. The loud cackling laugh, the smiling, the crying. Julia Roberts was just too Julia Roberts for the movie. You never really saw her as Elizabeth Gilbert, all you could see was every Julia Roberts character she’s ever played. They’re all so similar – either that’s a sign that Julia’s a good actress, or as I suspected earlier, and she’s not a very good actress at all. The character was deep, and interesting, and Julia did not portray that on film very well.
From the beginning, I just didn’t care for how the movie was filmed. It was glossed over, and too cheesy for me. The first half hour is painful to get through. Julia doesn’t really connect with any of the characters. From her first husband, played by Billy Crudup, to her rebound boyfriend James Franco - to the friends she meets along her journey – I just felt the relationships weren’t deep enough for me to care about. I adore Richard Jenkins whom she met in India – and I thought Javier Bardem – whom she falls in love with in Bali – was the best part of the whole movie.
I thought the movie wasn’t bad – but it definitely wasn’t good. Immediately after seeing the movie, I thought they totally miscast Elizabeth. Julia Roberts was not the right choice. I get why they cast her – seems like a sure thing, financially. But she didn’t do the material justice. Sure she can cry with the best of them. She does that laugh that made her famous in Pretty Woman. She smiles and we’re supposed to melt. Those cutesy tactics were lost on me.
In my humble opinion, better choices for Liz would have been Cate Blanchett, Naomi Watts or even Kate Winslet (even though she’s a bit young).
I’m not exactly sure where/why the movie fell flat…it just did. It was pretty bland. Sure, it was pretty to look at, and Julia Roberts is definitely gorgeous. But I could never really connect with the movie the way I did with the book.
Bottom Line? If you didn’t read the book, you might like it more than I did. It’s not a bad movie, it’s just not a great movie.
If you’ve seen it, I’d definitely love to hear your opinion.
Posted Tuesday, August 17th, 2010 at 11:11am
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