Monday, November 29, 2010

Eat Pray Love (Only If It Makes Me Happy)

I recently saw the movie Eat Pray Love. I had a preconceived idea of what it was going to be like based on the trailer and a description of the movie. I sensed that there was going to be a lot of hogwash about how you need to "find yourself" and take any and all necessary steps to find your own happiness. I had hoped that I would be pleasantly surprised and the movie would offer some depiction of the main character discovering joy in life through giving of herself to help others, or better yet, by reaching out to God Himself and desiring to please Him rather than herself.
But sadly, Eat Pray Love turned out to be just what I was afraid it would be: a story of an unfulfilled, young woman who decides she doesn't want to be unfulfilled anymore. So she does what any selfish, misguided person would do; she sets out to satisfy her longings and "empty places". It's all about her. Ironically, toward the beginning of the movie, she does cry out to God. It's quite a moving scene, actually. It's the middle of the night and she asks God for His help and begs Him to tell her what to do. Then she promptly climbs back into bed and tells her husband she's leaving him. And we're supposed to be thinking that that was God's answer to her.
From there, the character moves on from one self-focused decision to another. I couldn't help but think how many women this movie will influence. How many selfish attitudes will be perpetuated by the message that happiness is attained by doing "whatever feels good" and putting one's own wants and needs first? What a sad, narcissistic way of thinking.

What a silly, shallow movie.