I felt self conscious and embarrassed somehow. Is this the model woman we should be inspired by? Oh my God! She’s like a bad replica of a mediocre man. She abandons her husband and he’s the one, quite rightly, who feels betrayed. She uses James Franco and then throws him away. Keeps Richard Jenkins at arms length until she discovers he has something that may be useful to her and then, Javier Bardem…She shouts at him I don’t have to love you to love myself. What? She reeks of an awful case of selfishness but as she is played by Julia Roberts the whole thing becomes rather confusing. Is she a modern heroine? Oh God, I hope that wasn’t the intention. I felt as far away from her even further away from the character she played in “My Best Friend’s Wedding” Remember that one? In that one she becomes a criminal, really, yes, a criminal, to ruin her friend’s wedding. Oblivious to the fact that’s he’s clearly happy with Cameron Diaz. No, she’s only worried about herself. I’m giving “Eat Pray Love” a 3 and not a 1 because some landscapes, geographic as well as culinary are, quite simply, breath taking. Also Javier Bardem is worth the price of the very expensive ticket.

Just like Sex in the City, this film glorifies female borderline personality disorder. This film highlights fundamental flaws and defects in a woman’s character and frames them as character assets. The film starts out with a pampered princess who has a loving and decently handsome husband who falls over himself for his wife (Julia) yet she is discontent due to major character flaws which are likely attributable to selfishness, self-centeredness and arrogance so she she decided to go “find” herself with foreign lovers while eating Italian food.

If this movie’s main protagonist were a male, oh my God, could you imagine the female response? A male leaves his adoring, attractive wife to go bang foreign chicks while eating food? He would be considered a complete pig and further considered to be worth killing. These romcoms are now depicting women as these spoiled, privileged brats who are entitled to leave everybody else miserable while they “find themselves”. And the people they destroy both mentally and emotionally still “understand” that their torturer is just finding herself. These movies continue to portray hurtful and harmful behavior as a “spiritual awakening”. Julia Roberts plays the role of a spoiled, arrogant brat who is full of herself. After her jaunt to India maybe she wants to go join the other vapid female crew over in Dubai for a walk in the desert with no water.

In typical romcom fashion we have the arrogant female who leaves a trail of emotional wreckage in her wake (which we’re supposed to discount completely as a sacrifice to the greater good of the female) while she searches the world for hippies, food and lovers. We have these sorry sack men who continue to tell her how great and special she is although she is the complete opposite of these things. We have arrogance and selfishness put on display and covered with a false veil of gold. This woman should be in court losing 1/2 of all her earnings to her husband whom she left to go whore about for no good reason. This woman should be the scourge of the Earth and should receive social contempt for her behavior. However, like most romcoms the female can hurt everyone she knows if it will aid her superficial quest for some kind of make believe fulfillment and then, like Stockholm Syndrome, all her victims will forgive her or tell her she is the most important thing in the world and her happiness comes before anybody or anything else. I can’t believe men are still depicted as the heartless characters in films when every romcom depicts evil as good.

This movie made me cringe. I was forced to see it with mom, sister and wife. I told them all that the film literally made me sick. They agreed. This sort of behavior that is being engendered into women is sickening. Women who believe such a film represents anything positive about anything need to have their head checked for borderline personality disorder. Men need to stop treating women like little precious pieces of glass when those same women are not pieces of glass, are not these cute little powerless creatures but are instead, like Liz in the movie, arrogant, snotty, pampered, privileged, rude, morally bankrupt, conniving, selfish dolts who believe that their superficial happiness is worth any emotional cost to other people.

Do not see this movie and encourage others to avoid it like the plague

When I read the book last year, I had just lost my job, was looking for a new one and eating everything that was bad for me, so I enjoyed Liz’s misery and newfound joys. But now that I’m content, in this new phase of life, I find myself annoyed by people who create their own drama and then whine about it. So I would not have enjoyed the book if I were to read it now. Although everyone does a good job in this film, and the scenery is breathtaking — now I want to go to Rome!!!– I really couldn’t stand Liz. She has everything but whines about how “I don’t even know how to be HERE!” I meet people in my new job who are fighting cancer every day — they deserve the opportunity to whine (and few do, I might add). But pretty people who have everything and think they deserve more just tick me off. And it was a long painful sit. I do love the men in this movie — each one of them is so good. And Julia Roberts does what she can with this selfish character. I just don’t want to spend any more time with spoiled Liz. The time I spent watching her only ticked me off. I cannot recommend it, unless you’re self centered, indulged and rich — this could be your inspiration. Phoo!

Most people I know are going to see this film for Julia Roberts. It is that mysterious link that film stars create with their audiences. We develop a sort of craving to see them again. So a new Julia Roberts movie? Sure. Absolutely. I’m only a few years younger than Julia Roberts which means we have grown together. So, to see her play a woman facing a sort of middle age crisis makes you look inwards with a smile, the nervous kind. I must also say I’m a guy, heterosexual, but not fanatically so. I don’t have the fears that, Jay Leno for instance, shows, when confronted by a “chick flick” If anything “Eat Pray Love” proves that men and women are not that far apart, we simply deal with the same problems in different ways. Here, the filmmakers don’t shy away from the conflict and the balance is real. Julia’s husband, played beautifully by Billy Crudup, accuses her of leaving the marriage without an explanation. He is the one with the broken heart. In Italy, Julia eats and our own gastric juices start to do their thing. I glanced at my watch, I was ready to run into the nearest Italian restaurant and have a relationship with a pizza myself. Italy, Rome and even Naples look so clean that I hardly recognized it. CGI? Luca Argentero plays Julia’s tutor/tourist guide. He is a good looking guy that after appearing in the Italian version of the Big Brother reality show, he became a sort of local movie star and shows promising acting chops. Here, strangely enough, he looks small but charming all the same. India brings the wonderful Richard Jenkins and a solid piece of advise: “don’t give up on love” Bali, well, Bali is something else and it is there that Javier Bardem comes into the picture and provides us with the best scene in the film. I’m not going to tell you what it is but let me just say that involves his son and gives us, finally, a side of Julia we didn’t know how much we missed. Empathy. Feeling something for somebody else’s feelings. I think I may see the film a second time just to see that scene again. I also should mention that James Franco plays a young actor – not what I call a stretch – considering he is my favorite of the young actors around. I will challenge other members of my sex to go and see it. Not to be afraid to feel identified or even chocked up. I can assure you it’s not going to diminish you manliness in any way and will awake your appetites, big time.