Eat, Pray, Love Trailer

Transformative? Or Smug and Self-Indulgent?

By Dustin Rowles | Posted Under Trailers | Comments (38)

Here is the first trailer for Julia Roberts’ Eat, Pray, Love, Ryan Murphy’s adaptation of Elizabeth Gilbert’s best-selling memoir. It’s about a woman going through a divorce who decides to travel for a year and, you know, find herself (sounds like the bougie, chick-lit version of Into the Wild).

That memoir has been oft discussed here in our Cannonball Read, and opinion seems to be split between those who liked the book, and those who found it smug and self-indulgent. I don’t think Julia Roberts — who some of you think is profoundly boring — will sway opinion one way or another. It looks like a smug, self-indulgent movie that the likes of Oprah would wallow approvingly in, although the very brief moments in the trailer with Richard Jenkins look fantastic. Otherwise, a big fat bowl of meh.

The movie opens on August 13th.

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Comments

I shall answer without even watching! Smug and self-indulgent.

I'm magic like that.

Posted by: Cindy at March 18, 2010 11:37 AM

So savvy of her to get the publisher to foot the bill on spec.

Christ.

Posted by: Jay at March 18, 2010 11:38 AM

Oh, Fuck, No.

Posted by: Skewicide Blonde at March 18, 2010 11:40 AM

Ugh. This looks like a piece of shit. And I looooved the book.

Posted by: Kate the Great at March 18, 2010 11:40 AM

I fully expect to see Julia Roberts in the next iteration of Twilight to regain her credibility.

Posted by: admin at March 18, 2010 11:45 AM

Can't watch it, don't want to watch it. I fall into the 'didn't like the book' category. Some of it was fine, a lot of it was awful, and I didn't like the author at all.

Posted by: Carrie at March 18, 2010 11:58 AM

It looks fun and enjoyable.

Shoot me. I'm a sucker for a transformative film. My family is tempted to block FX on all the TVs because I will drop everything and watch The Devil Wears Prada whenever they play it, and they play it more than once a week.

I have the screenplay memorized. It's a sickness and I'm not ready to admit I need help yet.

Posted by: Robert at March 18, 2010 12:13 PM

Come on! I found the 150 pages describing her weeks sitting quietly and meditating in India to be quiet fasc-(yawn)-inating.

Posted by: Sbrown at March 18, 2010 12:14 PM

I refuse to read chick lit, and I refuse to see chick flicks.

I also refuse to read/see anything with a title like that.

So, therefore, I proclaim suckage on a scale Hoover would be proud of.

ta-da!!

Posted by: dammitjanet at March 18, 2010 12:48 PM

I'm afraid Julia is going to have to soldier on without me on this one.

Posted by: boscobarbell at March 18, 2010 12:51 PM

Commenting to laugh at you for using the word "bougie."

HA!

Old people and they're "hip" language adoption.

But this movie does look wiggity whack.

Posted by: Kayanne at March 18, 2010 12:59 PM

Ugh. I hate this even more than I hated the book, and I really REALLY hated that book. Shame on you, Jenkins. And Bardem. And Franco.

Posted by: Dorothy Snarker at March 18, 2010 1:10 PM

Pass the bleach, please. Not for my eyes. I intend to drink it. On the rocks.

Posted by: , at March 18, 2010 1:29 PM

The word is "their", kid.

Posted by: Jay at March 18, 2010 1:44 PM

Jay not according to all my friends' facebook status updates. I'm gonna go tweet my outrage and then bitch about this on Tumblr and it'll totally get reblogged.

But in all seriousness, I deserved that. No more posting while giggling for me.

Oh and since you made the point, Jay, the whole publisher covering the costs thing really pisses me off, too. If I had known that, I would have tried to convince a publisher to front me the bill for being a whiny white chick who wants to discover herself because her middle class, suburban home, Kashi eating, (comparatively) affluent life was just so friggin' full of problems, I would have pitched my book and had them pay for my college career in advance. You know, for research on my memoirs (a.k.a. the story of my own damn life). I'd have called it, "Learn, Sleep, Party: My journey in not getting felt up by wicked creepy townies at the bar. And getting a BA."

Posted by: Kayanne at March 18, 2010 2:24 PM

Just make sure you throw in some yoga.

Posted by: Jay at March 18, 2010 2:29 PM

Hmmm. I tried reading the book, got bored but I know that others LOVE.IT.TO.DEATH. so it will do well. But um wasn't her reasoning for leaving different? I must not have paid enough attention. But um HELL YEA James Franco! Love that kid.

Posted by: grace b at March 18, 2010 2:34 PM

Yoga, Jay?

Really. Really? Really. Granola crunching hippies do yoga.

I do pilates, thank you.

Posted by: Kayanne at March 18, 2010 2:50 PM

i'm going with smug and self indulgent

Posted by: gem at March 18, 2010 3:01 PM

That's it. I'm becoming a lesbian because I just love dammitjanet too much to let this be platonic any longer.

Posted by: PaddyDog at March 18, 2010 3:12 PM

Granola crunching hippies do yoga.

You're so naive.

Posted by: Jay at March 18, 2010 3:36 PM

I saw the book at the store and it looked like a bunch of bullmess. I can smell bullmess.

And that trailer looks like farts. I can't stand Julia Roberts. She's always just Julia Roberts, phoning it in because she's SOOOOOOO gotdamned famous she can just read some lines and not actually portray a character and then collect her check and whine and complain ladeeda. I can't wait till some producer or director gets pissed off and finally releases a DVD with all the outtakes of Roberts actually falling asleep while "acting."

She can go choke on it.

Posted by: Snuggiepants the Deathbringer at March 18, 2010 3:56 PM

Bitch, I ain't naïve, I know everything!

/Dumbass 20-something mentality

Posted by: Kayanne at March 18, 2010 4:11 PM

This yoga thing goes deeper than you could imagine.

Posted by: Jay at March 18, 2010 4:25 PM

Surprise! She just put out a sequel. You can keep this shit rolling. See: Elizabeth (this book is about how my last book ruined my life) Wurtzel and now Augusten Fucking Burroughs. Shut UP already!

Posted by: Jay at March 18, 2010 4:28 PM

"Smug and Self Indulgent" is EXACTLY the phrase my dad used to describe this book (he got through about a third of it). He also hates Julia Roberts

I'm SO sending him this trailer.

Posted by: esme at March 18, 2010 5:56 PM

Heh, 'bougie'.

So that's where Martin Lawrence has been: he's been hiding in Dustin's brain.

Posted by: Jo 'Mama' Besser at March 18, 2010 5:57 PM

Jay, I've labored over my response, but alas, I still cannot decide. You may choose:

a.) That sounds weirdly ominous. Elaborate please.

b.) That's what she said.

Posted by: Kayanne at March 18, 2010 6:15 PM

It is some serious Stuff White People Like shit.

Posted by: Jay at March 18, 2010 6:33 PM

Oh, well duh, but it's so old school. Pilates is where the hip cats are at.

Hip cats are what the kids are saying these days, right?

Posted by: Kayanne at March 18, 2010 7:15 PM

Oh, fuck you and your beautiful life!

So, what, now that it's not PC to go to Africa self discovery, you come to Asia? And you equate an old Agian guy to an alien?

Sorry, lady, we have enough real trouble without some entitled women with her "issues" come meddling. Just drop your money and go home with a fake enlightenment quick unless you are really committed to getting yourself involved in the local community.

I was not okay with my Japanese mother doing this in her sixties (and it was in Bali, too) and I won't be okay with you using rural Asian for your fucking self discovery. They do not cater their lives around your issues!!

Stay un-enlightened. Stay a sorry ass loser. You got everything else already don't you?

Posted by: yocean at March 18, 2010 7:49 PM

Someone else referred to this movie as "Eat, Crap, Sleep" and now that's all I can think of when I see the title.

Posted by: Craig at March 18, 2010 8:15 PM

I want to know what is a good age for starting the quest to "find myself". I would totally love to drop all of my responsibilities and travel for a while to a far and exotic place. Now, I have never been able to really loose myself... can I still go and try to find me?

Posted by: Cuca at March 18, 2010 9:51 PM

Her publisher financed the trip because she'd already written a couple of books and had moderate success as a journalist. It wasn't like she just walked in off the street.

This book helped me a lot when I was going through some big changes. I read it again recently and didn't love it as much. Never did I think this would make a good film, and judging from this preview, I was right.

Posted by: Kate the Great at March 19, 2010 12:11 AM

I've been to paradise but I've never been to me.

Posted by: , at March 19, 2010 1:01 AM

Hated, hated, HATED the book. Looks like my feelings will carry over to this movie.

Posted by: Emily at March 19, 2010 2:34 AM

The only thing this book did for me was make me hungry. Hungry enough to want to go to Italy and eat pasta all the time. So, yes, it's pretty self-indulgent.

Posted by: chester at March 19, 2010 2:40 PM

While I did not like the book as "literature" it was a good light read. What made it come alive for me, however, is how several students took to it in my comparative sociology class. I started the class with an academic book about Bali, but it was not until some of the students "discovered" the Bali section that they started to think learning about Bali might be of interest. I am curious to see if the film goes that extra kilometer and shows some aspects of Bali that are not just romanticization and "Orientalism." The book I ended the seminar with is by Randall Collins, a thoroughly academic book that senior students find really tough going.

Posted by: Hans Bakker at April 18, 2010 8:49 PM

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Transformative? Or Smug and Self-Indulgent?

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