The best line in Eat Pray Love comes early on. When Liz Gilbert’s, (Julia Roberts), marriage is falling apart she gets down on her knees and gives prayer a try. Now Liz, a successful author and full-fledged member of the secular New York literati, realizes this is a bit phony so she considers starting her prayer with, “Hello God, I’m a big fan of your work.” I’m a big fan of Julia Robert’s work but Eat Pray Love makes impossible chick flick demands.
The modern chick flick is a difficult genre. A good chick flick:
- Caters to women without alienating men.
- Treats important but not serious themes.
- Is funny in a harmless inoffensive way.
- Offers up current female fantasies of the ideal man.
- Pushes soft feminist politics.
- Goes easy on the ball crushing man hatred.
Eat Pray Love methodically tackles all these points; the film is earnest to a fault! Yet two hours after seeing it you are left with Julia Robert’s wonderful smile and a nagging sense that hubris laden narcissists have picked your pockets — again! In this way Eat Pray Love is the perfect Obama era chick flick. Not recommended for people with something better to do!
Analyze the Data not the Drivel 
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