MovieChat Forums > Eat Pray Love (2010) Discussion > Would this have been any better if someo...

Would this have been any better if someone else had played the lead?

posted 13 years ago by daughterofolaf
10 replies | jump to latest

I found this movie to be pretty painful to sit through but I am not sure how much of it is the fact that I was forced to watch Julia Roberts sitting in a bathtub with her legs spread open, stuff that godawful, huge piehole with food for forty minutes straight (or however long it was), make the hideous cry-face, interact with just about everyone with that air of arrogance that always seems to surround her and how much of it was merely that the author of this book-turned-movie is one of the most selfish, self-absorbed, hysterical people on earth.

I will admit that I cannot stand Julia Roberts on any level. And part of me wonders if they had simply chosen someone else to play the lead whether I would have liked the movie more. Because honestly, even though I find the main character unlikable I can relate to her in many ways. Yet I still don't like her and find the movie to be just bad.

"Rock 'n roll martian!"

[–] Aidualc19 13 years ago

Julia Roberts doesn't bother me, in fact I liked some of her other roles, but I found it hard sitting through this movie. From all the characters in this movie I found hers the most unlikeable.

Tomorrow I will change and today wont mean a thing

[–] ofuoku71 12 years ago

I think Julia was perfect for this role.

[–] dglink 12 years ago

Have to agree that Julia Roberts was the weakest of the actors, she never made me believe her decisions to dump all those guys, especially James Franco, who was a decade younger and looked so. If she wanted the balance she said she craved, then Richard Jenkins offered it, the one guy who had real depth and seemed to understand her. So far, however, I cannot come up with an actress who could pull this badly motivated role off, perhaps Javier should have asked his wife, Penelope, to step in, at least she looks like she enjoys food.

[–] Spacer1 12 years ago

This was another one of those movies that made me wonder if it would have been more or less appealing if the lead was perhaps someone not as traditionally attractive and maybe overweight. Having Julia Roberts play this kind of character is certainly a Hollywood white wash.

[–] whitespirit26 12 years ago

I can MOST easily see her dump the young dope, I mean really?

And whitewash my foot, the real Liz Gilbert is skinny and blonde, not overweight.

[–] Princess_Ashmi 12 years ago

Julia was amazing in this film and sweet. Why all the hate?

Ashmi any question

[–] Spacer1 12 years ago

As I said, I think it's another case of Hollywood white washing and casting someone too attractive in a role of this kind.

[–] phoenixxphyre 12 years ago

The attractiveness of anyone is subjective, but I don't think Roberts and the author are too far apart from each other. http://pandoration.com/wp-content/uploads/elizabeth_gilbert_julia_robe rts.jpg

[–] whitespirit26 12 years ago

Anyone else would have been equally unattractive in the bathtub or with a "piehole open" as you put these things in such an ugly way, which I didn't find any more unattractive than any average sight. Julia's character was more restrained in the movie than in the book, so Gilbert herself had mainly to do with you disliking her so much.

[–] diorlouboutin 11 years ago

I'm sorry you seem to have so much contempt for a person you've never met for no legitimate reason whatsoever.