Who will be the first guy in America to admit he likes 'Eat Pray Love'?

I may watch a lot of "SportsCenter," but that doesn't mean I don't like a wonderfully warm 'n' fuzzy women's picture, whether it's a great Lubitsch film like "The Shop Around the Corner" or one of Nora Ephron's cinematic souffles, like last year's "Julie & Julia." But there are chick flicks and then there chick flicks like Ryan Murphy's "Eat Pray Love," the sudsy Julia Roberts big-screen romance that opens on Friday opposite the testosterone-filled, throwback action picture  "The Expendables." Judging from the buzz I'm hearing, Sony might need to engage in some sort of mass hypnosis to lure any red-blooded American guy away from the Sly Stallone movie and into a theater showing "Eat Pray Love." As one female film executive I know put it: "I think I'd have better luck getting my husband to spend an afternoon at Bed, Bath and Beyond than seeing that movie."

Chick flicks (even good ones, like Richard Curtis' "Love, Actually") rarely get any traction with male film critics, especially squishy travelogues that take us around the world and back, as "Eat Pray Love" does. So I thought I'd keep track of how many male critics--if any--succumb to the film's pleasures. The early reviews don't bode well for "Love" having any serious male critic crossover potential.

At Rotten Tomatoes, "Love" has a lowly 25 Fresh Ratings so far, with six of the eight reviews currently posted giving it the old thumbs down. The one guy who gave it a good review is Steve Persall of the St. Petersburg Times, who offered the faint praise that it was, ahem, better than "Sex and the City 2." It sounds like Persall was awfully hungry when he saw the film, which might explain why he was so enthusiastic. As he writes: "At the very least it's a terrific travelogue starring someone we'd follow to the ends of the Earth. 'Eat Pray Love' is like one of those rich dishes [Julia Roberts] consumes in Italy: robustly flavored and guiltily pleasurable."

The other guys on the critic beat were less kind. Noting that the film clocks in at a "bloated" 140 minutes, Variety's Justin Chang says "director Ryan Murphy's superficial take on Elizabeth Gilbert's phenomenally successful memoir is an exotic junk-foot buffet that offers few lasting pleasures or surprises, let alone epiphanies. Sony's release should do well with a sizable and underserved audience of older femmes, though Gilbert's more discriminating readers may find themselves reaching for pillows and Pepto-Bismol by the end of this overlong voyage."

If any of my male readers see the film this weekend, please share your thoughts--and whether you needed to pop any Pepto-Bismol after the experience. I'll be watching to see if the movie passes muster with a lot more male film critics, but right now, I'm not holding my breath. 

Photo: Julia Roberts at the world premiere of "Eat Pray Love" in New York this week. Credit: Evan Agostino / Associated Press

Comments

[Gaith]

As a mid-20s male, I must say that the title alone makes me want to barf every time I read it. At least such movies as "Snakes on a Plane" and "Live Free or Die Hard", terrible as they were, had witty titles that make you want to hear more. But by the time I've heard "Eat Pray", with not even so much as a grammatical comma between those two howlers, I've totally lost interest in the rest of the title - *even if it does hint at sex*!.

Now, I very much liked "Love Actually", and while its title was a bit daft, it at least was intriguing. Love actually WHAT?!

Note to studios: titles are cheap. If you wanted males to see this movie, you could have at least tried for one that didn't send them running from its mere name.

[Stella]

"Elizabeth Gilbert's phenomenally successful memoir is an exotic junk-foot buffet"
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Do you mean junk-FOOD?
Dear LA Times: Get a proof-reader.

[Jaap den Haan]

I would. The concept is alright. There may be a moral. Italian food is better for some women than prayer or love. Indian prayer is better than food. I would pray before eating although. Millions in the world are begging for food. The food is there, yet millions starve. America discards 40 per cent of the food it makes, while a billion are hungry. Food is based on the same taboo as sex. There is no natural relating in either anymore. Indirectly we eat our own people. In that way New Guinea would have been a better decorum for the finale than Bali. Indeed cannibalism exists.

[Jaap den Haan]

(Mann ist was man isst.)

[The Judge]

I only go to Julia Roberts movies if drugged and dragged at gunpoint. (Exceptions made Charlie Wilson's War and the Oceans series).
Stella: I've been bugging the Times about proofreaders and editos for a couple of years now to no avail.

[Frank]

The guys of glee already have admitted it.

[Mike]

Dear Jaap:
What ARE you talking about??

[pip]

A.O. Scott of the NY Times gave it a good review. Hey - I'm not a fan of "chick flicks" at all - and I'm a chick! But reading his review actually made me want to see it. BTW- I hated the book.

[ad]

julia roberts - that's enough for me to not bother - could have been a good story ex that talentless uselss pseudo actress

[steve]

I might catch it on DVD just for the scenery, but I def. won't see it in the theater. That would be like going to an Indigo Girls concert or Lilith Fair:)

I've heard a lot of women view this movie as some sort of defining statement of femimism...that women "don't need no man" (bad grammar intended so don't post about that), and can just chuck it all and find enlightenment.

While it's true men and women don't need each other, I find it odd that some women seem so proud in making such declarative statements. I imagine these are the same women who declare themselves feminists but always expect a man to pay for them and when they are out drinking with a group of men, mysteriously never buy a round of drinks because "they're a woman". Ahhhhhh, nothing like feminist hypocrisy. You think we don't notice, but we do. We always do. Just because we don't say anything doesn't mean we don't notice. There's a reason American men are interested in dating women from other countries....we just don't make movies about it.