Eat, Pray, Discover Yourself

Women's lib dons a new look with the book and movie "Eat, Pray, Love".

The movie (and the book) tries to be set in a tone that is very different from other women-centric movies (ok ok, chick flicks if you insist). The protagonist, Elizabeth Gilbert, in her journey of breaking free from being molded as a typical New York wife with a house in the suburbs and an apartment in the city, discovers the simple joys of eating good food and wine in Italy, makes an attempt (and fails) at finding peace through meditation in an ashram in India, and finally comes to Bali to make true a prediction made by a 9th generation medicine man.

But just as you think the book tries to achieve something different, she goes ahead and (yaaaaaawn) .... falls in love with nothing less than a Brazilian man who is conveniently one of those "all-male exterior with the tenderness of a lamb and love-making skills of an Adonis" stereotypes.

Don't get me wrong, I love the notion of a movie that ends with the happy couple falling in love. In fact I, along with all the 100 odd women in the theater (exception the two rather shame-faced men who were probably darting their heads from side to side as their wives would have held their hands) sobbed in unison as Elizabeth relived moments of her wedding dance, and we all laughed in unison as Ketut Liyer, the medicine man advised her to "smile from the liver".

This silent resonance of women in a movie hall continued through the movie, with all of us empathizing with the main character's breakdown moments and not quite understanding why she divorces her husband, but being happy for her at the same time.

Yet in the end, it reinforced the idea that all happy endings should involve fading into the sunset with the right guy. So in that sense, how different was it from Sex and The City or Pretty Woman, How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days, or even Hes Just Not That Into You (yes yes ... I am guilty of having watched and wait for it ... ENJOYED these movies).

Maybe I should just sit with my husband and hold his hand as he watches Die Hard and imagine us fading into the sunset.