Monday, August 30, 2010

BBF- All the cool kids have one



So while my twins were away the other week with the grandparents I did see Eat, Pray, Love, but for some reason I was hesitant to talk about it here and I wasn’t quite sure why. I enjoyed the movie well enough though I wouldn’t call it a rave. It was clearly a like and something I would see again once it comes out on video or on cable.

The scenery was lush and beautiful as I knew it would be, Javier was lush and beautiful as I knew he would be and Julia was lush and well, you get the point.
But the movie as I feared it would, did not live up to my love of Elizabeth Gilbert's book. The book (which this is part of its criticism) was a perfect escape from life at a time when I truly needed it and the movie somehow made light of that. Turning what were much more real characters in my head into caricatures.

Now my biggest problem with the movie which I had going into it as soon as I saw the trailer many months ago was the Viola Davis character of Delia who for the life of me I could not remember from the original. Where did this Black best friend come from and why is she suddenly in the movie when she wasn’t in the book? The book that sold millions and I thought was near perfect, but suddenly Hollywood thought needed a Black sidekick to what, throw us a bone to get us into the theater? I was insulted and continued to be throughout the movie.



I talked to my DH about this (probably more than he would have liked) getting into characterization and internal dialogue all trying to reason out the reason for this character. In the end I couldn’t do it. I didn’t need to be pandered to in that way. You see I would have seen the movie either way because I loved the book and Julia and well there was Javier.


And being a lover of good acting and people who know their craft I would love to see Viola in her own starring role which this Oscar nominated and Tony award winning actress deserves. It doesn’t matter that she is a Black woman, but me being a black women, yeah that would make me pretty happy too. So are you listening Hollywood? More money from me and I think more women like me if you just smarten up and get a tad bit creative and open minded.

But the bottom line is this….I am over the Black sidekick role. How long is this tired role going to be replayed because at this point Netflix is becoming my BFF.

For more on the BBF check out The Root here.

Love You, Love Me,
Kwana

2 comments:

  1. Haven't seen the movie. Have no desire to do so actually! LOL! Does that make me a bad person!

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  2. BBFs remind me of the perennial chick lit GBF. It seems as if every humorous romance or chick lit novel needs a gay best friend. Puhleez.

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