Eat Pray Cliche

Yes yes I know I am 3 years too late. I would never pay to see a movie like this so had to wait for it to come onto Netflix which it recently has done & as I am enjoying some downtime (am "resting" between projects!) I thought why not - it was raining hard, plumbers were still running up & down the stairs, the KC was asleep, "Pointless" is getting boring and the Millionaire Matchmaker is on repeat (seen 'em all) so I got a cup of tea & some biccies and settled down and pressed play.

I thought well, I should be able to really relate to this, this used to be me, I get the whole "what does it all mean? Do I need a man for it to be OK?" I mean really, how bad can this film be?? To be fair I have not read the book so ... the film ... it incensed me so much I am driven to blog!

It falls off the bad-ometer. I once threw Bridget Jones's Diary into a swimming pool I was so incensed by the lack of reality of her apparently hilarious singledom and coterie of unbelievable male admirers; if I was a vandalistic sort I would've chucked something heavy and spiky at the TV

As it was I was in & out of the room & pressing fast forward just to see what else could happen, how many clichés they could stuff into one film. The sad face at the bookstore buying "I'm OK You're OK it will be fine one day" (or something like that) and the judgemental check out girl; the immediate shacking up with young artistic type  minutes after ending (we are led to believe) a long marriage. Then the stereotypes; the icy Scandawegian who is worried about gaining weight (although that was the one decent line in the whole movie - "He’s in a room with a naked girl. He’s won the lottery!"); the fat & jolly Italian & "old fashioned mother", the tortured ex alcoholic Texan & beatific guru; the ridiculously poor, downtrodden but happy Indonesians (plus the grumpy one who was quite rightly annoyed by Americans trying to find themselves in Bali), the Brazilian party girl & exhibitionist Aussie. and of course the gentle, sensitive, in touch with his feminine side (we know 'cos he cries!) Latino. What was the absurdly talented Javier Bardem thinking?? Hope it was pay check. And was it really necessary to mention every 30 seconds she was divorced?

I spent a few tough years being VERY single - mostly miserable as I really believed being alone proved I was worthless, I should be part of a couple - and the second I got over myself and my need for approval from everyone & actually stopped caring so much what 'other people' thought, I did meet the right man & yes I am now happily married. But the protagonist in Eat Pray Cliché doesn't appear to ever get over her self centred, selfish, 'pick men up & put them down' self. There is no lesson as such, no real help to anyone in her original "unhappy marriage (relationship)" situation other than be selfish & hard, flirt outrageously, be mean to people who are nice to you. Or maybe that is the lesson....?