We saw Eat Pray Love at the weekend. I had only a vague idea of its storyline, but was pretty sure there'd be no car chases, bloody and noisy violence or 3D spectacles (of both kinds) to contend with. I was right. It's a gentle movie - rather reminiscent of some I recall from the late 1960s and early 70s, which delighted in transporting audiences to foreign lands with wonderful scenery and strange customs. In those days travel by air was only just seeping through for the masses, but we all eagerly looked forward to the day we could jet off to Italy, Spain, the USA and beyond. Those movies urged us on, whetting appetites.
Different in this movie, though, was the sense of frustration I felt with the leading character. Mostly I just wanted to slap her. I like Julia Roberts - I'm not blaming her for the character she was required to portray. We reckoned she was mis-cast in the part, chosen to sell tickets. Better alternatives - off the top of my head: Ashley Judd, Diane Lane? The movie's lead character, Liz Gilbert, had a successful career as a writer, a husband who apparently loved her - yet she was not satisfied. She came over, to me, as a spoiled rotten, dissatisfied, self absorbed individual whose favourite occupation was contemplating her own navel.
Liz decided to take a year off in order to travel and....what ? Find herself, her "spirituality" - an all-purpose term used cover a multitude of New Age fluff. She travelled to Italy, India and Bali, spending months in each place. She found good friends, developed pleasant relationships in each location yet, dammit, she was still not satisfied. Liz badly needed (to use one of my huband's son-in-law's expressions) "a dope slap up the side of the head".
I read that Oprah had endorsed the book Eat, Pray, Love from which the movie was adapted. That don't impress me much either.
The film's photography was beautiful though, and the Italian food in Rome had me recalling the smells, tastes and atmospheres I still remember from two vacations there, long ago. Julia Roberts' co-stars were well-cast, all good actors portraying likeable characters. Javier Bardem, in Bali, was quite something - the mental dope-slaps were coming thicker and faster as Liz turned to leave him!
The movie is an adaptation of Elizabeth Gilbert's book, a novel, but I now discover it was also her memoirs. Oops! Best not be dishing out too many dope-slaps here then. I'll surmise that, in her book, she exaggerated some aspects of the lead character for effect !
I decided to take a look at Ms Gilbert's natal chart. Born 18 July 1969 in Waterbury, Connecticut. 12 noon chart shown - no birth time available.
Sun and Mercury in Cancer, a possible stellium (cluster) in Libra (depending on Moon position.) Ah! My antipathy may have arisen for astrological reasons. I don't often get on well with either Cancer-type or Libra-type people, in spite of the fact that I have Cancer rising natally, and an Airy Sun which ought to go better with Libra than it does.
Neptune(planet of creativity) in Scorpio is in harmonious trine to Sun/Mercury; and with Venus in Gemini and Moon in Virgo both ruled by communications planet Mercury - writing was always going to be on Ms Gilbert's agenda.
Where is her propensity for navel-gazing though. Navel-gazing is something I'll never understand, by the way, so might have difficulty detecting in a chart. It'll be related to the Moon for sure (pity we don't have a birth time). Moon would have had to be between between 4 and 16 degrees of Virgo as she was born. I'd guess it lay at the earlier end of the span. That would link Moon (inner self) to the conjunction of Jupiter (excess & travel) and Uranus (eccentricity). So that'd boil down to: Inner self subjected to excessive and eccentric observation, a fondness for travel, and - remembering Moon is in Virgo, excessive critical analysis.
Different in this movie, though, was the sense of frustration I felt with the leading character. Mostly I just wanted to slap her. I like Julia Roberts - I'm not blaming her for the character she was required to portray. We reckoned she was mis-cast in the part, chosen to sell tickets. Better alternatives - off the top of my head: Ashley Judd, Diane Lane? The movie's lead character, Liz Gilbert, had a successful career as a writer, a husband who apparently loved her - yet she was not satisfied. She came over, to me, as a spoiled rotten, dissatisfied, self absorbed individual whose favourite occupation was contemplating her own navel.
Liz decided to take a year off in order to travel and....what ? Find herself, her "spirituality" - an all-purpose term used cover a multitude of New Age fluff. She travelled to Italy, India and Bali, spending months in each place. She found good friends, developed pleasant relationships in each location yet, dammit, she was still not satisfied. Liz badly needed (to use one of my huband's son-in-law's expressions) "a dope slap up the side of the head".
I read that Oprah had endorsed the book Eat, Pray, Love from which the movie was adapted. That don't impress me much either.
The film's photography was beautiful though, and the Italian food in Rome had me recalling the smells, tastes and atmospheres I still remember from two vacations there, long ago. Julia Roberts' co-stars were well-cast, all good actors portraying likeable characters. Javier Bardem, in Bali, was quite something - the mental dope-slaps were coming thicker and faster as Liz turned to leave him!
The movie is an adaptation of Elizabeth Gilbert's book, a novel, but I now discover it was also her memoirs. Oops! Best not be dishing out too many dope-slaps here then. I'll surmise that, in her book, she exaggerated some aspects of the lead character for effect !I decided to take a look at Ms Gilbert's natal chart. Born 18 July 1969 in Waterbury, Connecticut. 12 noon chart shown - no birth time available.
Sun and Mercury in Cancer, a possible stellium (cluster) in Libra (depending on Moon position.) Ah! My antipathy may have arisen for astrological reasons. I don't often get on well with either Cancer-type or Libra-type people, in spite of the fact that I have Cancer rising natally, and an Airy Sun which ought to go better with Libra than it does.
Neptune(planet of creativity) in Scorpio is in harmonious trine to Sun/Mercury; and with Venus in Gemini and Moon in Virgo both ruled by communications planet Mercury - writing was always going to be on Ms Gilbert's agenda.
Where is her propensity for navel-gazing though. Navel-gazing is something I'll never understand, by the way, so might have difficulty detecting in a chart. It'll be related to the Moon for sure (pity we don't have a birth time). Moon would have had to be between between 4 and 16 degrees of Virgo as she was born. I'd guess it lay at the earlier end of the span. That would link Moon (inner self) to the conjunction of Jupiter (excess & travel) and Uranus (eccentricity). So that'd boil down to: Inner self subjected to excessive and eccentric observation, a fondness for travel, and - remembering Moon is in Virgo, excessive critical analysis.
