The Good: As I just said, this movie takes you on a visually gorgeous journey through each of these different countries. Each location and shot was perfectly picked and brought the words that Elizabeth Gilbert wrote in her book to life. Julia was of course amazing as always. Her tearful monologues were passionate and kept you gripped to the screen. And hello Javier Bardem. The role he played was one of a compassionate father who's wife had left him. I don't consider myself a big crier when it comes to movies but in one specific scene where Javier says goodbye to his son who is leaving for school, my water works came rushing out. Overall each actor had a wonderful performance and each character, even that little Buddha man, was perfect for the part. The basis for the overall narrative: a woman on this epic journey to renew her life and traveling the world, was the perfect meat for an amazing story and overall I truly enjoyed the concept of the narrative. However, the script just did not deliver the story right.
The Bad: I'll admit, I just didn't think the script was good. The narrative was longer than it needed to be to a point of boredom. The things that didn't need to be in the movie were in it and the things that needed to be in it weren't which left me confused at times. For instance, the section of the movie where she travels to India was so dragged on and so long. The things that happened there didn't even really matter except for one specific man she met. During that section of the movie I was checking my phone and quite honestly bored. So when the India part dragged on, certain things like explaining her past or her relationship with her husband were not developed at all and left me confused. For example, they show one night of her going out with her husband in which no real conflict happens between the two of them and later that night she is crying on the bathroom floor begging to get out of her marriage. Why was the relationship so awful? I wouldn't know because it was never explained. Also, the James Franco character was just the same. They were madly in love and the next thing you know she leaves him. What I criticize the most was that the James Franco character was written to be more important to her than her husband. After years of marriage, her husband should have been the one she compared other men too and missed. It just made Julia Roberts character seem cold and immature to value the relationship with a much younger man more than her loving husband. Overall Julia's character was unrelateable These aspects made the movie at times choppy and at other times dragged on.
The Ugly: The entire India part. I will put it blankly, this entire section of the movie was boring and quite honestly uninteresting. What I remember of this part was her sitting in silence, meditating and vowing an oath of silence. Sounds really exciting doesn't it?
Overall, the movie was good in my opinion just not great. The story structure was definitely flawed and I lacked the inspiration I was hoping to get from seeing the film. However, Julia and the cast did their jobs but overall Julia's character was unrelateable. I give this movie a C.
No comments:
Post a Comment