MovieChat Forums > Eat Pray Love (2010) Discussion > She's unlikable, so what?

She's unlikable, so what?

posted 12 years ago by marlee-4
13 replies | jump to latest

I've been reading some posts here on the message board, and it seems that most people dislike this film because Roberts' chararacter is 'unlikable'.

I doubt that many of you will agree with me but I actually find that statement sexist (yes I'm a feminist, start trolling!). Why, you may ask, and I'll tell you: The main character being likable is not generally a criteria for a film being good!

Take films like Dr Strangelove, Taxi Driver, The Shining, American History X, A Clockwork Orange, Downfall and Annie Hall - All from the imdb top 250 list - all with unlikable main characters. Difference seems to be that they are men, so they are allowed to be unsympathetic.

Some of you complain because she left her husband. People leave their partners all the time, it doesn't make them bad people! Maybe they're just really bad at making choices?

That being said I didn't find her character unlikable at all, I saw that she was deeply unhappy. Unhappy people don't have the resources to put others first, like women are expected to.

Please don't think I'm saying all of this because I love the film. I gave it a 5/10. I just don't think the problem lies with Roberts' character but rather the total lack of style in this film. It has a few beautiful moments but seems to try to position itself between mainstream and artsy, and that just makes it bland. I wish the director had dared to go all European on this.

[–] psxff7 12 years ago

Umm... the films you invoked are all male driven. So if you switched Eat Pray Love's protagonist to male who throws away his wife and job and responsibilities invoking his youth you get American Beauty and sweep the Oscars!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LS37SNYjg8w

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[–] Nova_Scotia 12 years ago

It wasn't so much that she was "unlikable"- more that we as the audience were obviously *expected* to relate or sympathise with her and I honestly could not do either..the movie was trying to convey a message but it failed.
I still don't see what's sexist about finding her unlikable though :/

...or something far more sinister?

[–] Hot_for_Ewan 12 years ago

I had no problem sympathizing with her as I am recently in the same place as her.
I left my husband last year after a long relationship because I was unhappy and didn't think that staying in it was the best idea for either of us. I completely understood where she was coming from and agreed with her decision. Like her, I found new love unexpectedly and was scared to persue it. I am glad I got into the boat just like she did. I will never regret the decisions that I made or the people I met along the way.

[–] mick1998 11 years ago

I had no problem sympathizing with her as I am recently in the same place as her.
I left my husband last year after a long relationship because I was unhappy and didn't think that staying in it was the best idea for either of us. I completely understood where she was coming from and agreed with her decision. Like her, I found new love unexpectedly and was scared to persue it. I am glad I got into the boat just like she did. I will never regret the decisions that I made or the people I met along the way.

Is Ewan the name of your husband or the name of your new love?

[–] sheywhat 12 years ago

It's that she's unlikable and uninteresting. You just named movies that each have interesting main characters despite their personal deficiencies. As well, that LG's character is supposed to be not only likable but damn near irresistible is a driving force of EPL as it's told. It provides much of the basis for the decisions people make throughout the story. She should radiate with some quality which makes her very sympathetic to the audience unless those people LG's character interacts with aren't supposed to be representative of real world people.

Ed Norton's Derek Vinyard in American History X was unlikable but he was unlikable to the people in the film that weren't neo-Nazis. So it makes sense that he's unlikable since most of us aren't neo-Nazis. Same with Malcolm McDowell from Clockwork Orange and Travis Bickle, etc. We don't like them because they aren't likable. Whereas with Liz Gilbert's character, we don't like her even though she's supposed to be likable.

Your "feminist" critique makes no sense as it is a critical flaw of the movie that reasonable and vibrant persons are drawn to this other character who falls flat with the audience who, ultimately, are the ones that need to be convinced. It'd be like if you had a character making everyone in the movie laugh but the audience never cracked a smile.

[–] galluslass 11 years ago

Read the book first and it was hard going. You want to like your main character, your heroine - and I just couldn't. So wrapped up in her own importance and selfish and as someone said - just interesting and worst of all plain annoying. Would be note rested in what the she is up to know. I can't see her changing really.

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[–] diorlouboutin 11 years ago

I 100% agree with this post. I really WANTED to get into this movie and Julia Roberts did her best, but ultimately the script and directing never fully landed. There were all of these big, emotional, revelatory moments but none of them paid off because they didn't feel earned by the movie. They tried to make it too Hollywood and it ended up just being kind of "blah".

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[–] I_Love_Hutch 10 years ago

The lead from Taxi Driver was not, IMO, unlikable. Not at all. He was actually pretty sympathetic. He was messed up, sure, but he was sad and terribly lost and lonely and his intentions were good. So, I don't think Travis Bickle is a valid comparison.

Alex from A Clockwork Orange was somewhat likable in spite of himself. Alex is sooooo charismatic and intelligent and the movie is brilliant and his anti-social tendencies lend themselves well to the overall theme of the movie. Plus, he's funny.

Jack from The Shining has some of the same qualities are Alex. But I don't find him all that likable. That could be partly because he abuses his son, but mostly because I love Shelly Duvall to the hilt. I will always root for Shelly.

Dr. Strangelove is a farce and I just could never get into the movie. The guys are jerks and I just don;t care. I thought the movie was not funny at all.

I love Annie Hall. Woody Allen's persona I find very, very funny. He's an extreme pessimist by nature. He's not always very sensitive to women's needs and Annie is too good for him, but he also knows that she is too good for him. Also, WA original title for this movie was "Anhedonia", which means the inability to experience pleasure. Then, after consideration, he changed the name to "Annie Hall", which was a generous, gallant gesture.

I've never seen Americna X or Donwfall.

The reason why people don't like the Julia Roberts is, I suspect, because Julia Roberts is EXTREMELY arrogant and concited and snotty and stuck on herself. none of the men, with the possible exception of Alex, goes around thinking like they are better than everybody else. And there opinion cannot be all that reliable because as much as I have hated Julia Roberts in almost everything I have seen her in, I did, in fact, like Geena Davis and Susan Sarandon A LOT in Thelma and Louise. And that movie was as feminist-oriented as they come. But they had none of JR's unlikable personality traits, they were just tired of being treated poorly by men. Julia Roberts just can't herself. She is horribly unlikable.