Film Review: Eat Pray Love

Elizabeth Gilbert's inspiration memoir, Eat Pray Love: One Woman's Search for Everything Across Italy, India, and Indonesia, was undoubtedly headed for the silver screen when the book became a cultural phenomenon for women. However, this seemingly powerful story of a woman's journey to find herself (I haven't read the entire memoir, and therefore can't fully judge the adaptation choices) was transformed into a sloppy and tired piece of quasi-chick-flick schlock.

Successful writer Elizabeth Gilbert (Julia Roberts), after a sudden divorce from her husband (Billy Crudup) and short fling with an actor (James Franco), decides to leave New York and take a yearlong exploration of the world, to find herself. She travels to Italy (Eat), lives at an ashram in India (Pray); and ends up in Bali, Indonesia, where she hopes to find balance in her life under a spiritual Shaman (and, big surprise, finds Love).

Without Julia Roberts, Eat Pray Love would be almost unwatchable. Roberts imbues the part with her usual spark, giving Gilbert an irresistible charm, and hitting every level of emotion this woman experiences. While most of the other A-list actors are given very little to work with, Richard Jenkins also stands above as a fellow devotee at the ashram, called Richard from Texas. Jenkins is the other shining moment of the film, rising above the his character's forced emotions and odd spiritual epitaphs to show something natural and inspired; together, him and Roberts give the movie some of the raw emotional connection I was hoping to see more of.

There are some beautiful moments buried in this film: "food porn" (pasta! pizza! asparagus!) in Italy, a Thanksgiving feast with Gilbert's Italian "family," Gilbert's impact on a local healer, and the romance between Gilbert and Felipe (Javier Bardem), to name a few. However, the movie as a whole doesn't work, and Ryan Murphy's (creator of Glee) direction is uninspired. The film is far too long; Gilbert's memoir is incredibly episodic, but the adaptation's attempt to build a through-line struggles. The cinematography is messy - the camera will forget to move, before careening over the action like a drunk bird; some of the lighting choices give the film a cheap, soft-porn glow. Also, each location doesn't celebrate the power of these countries. There are some beautiful landscape shots, but often the personality seems forced (aided by jarring musical choices), or sucked dry.

Beyond the technical problems, there are serious underdevelopment issues. The script doesn't build a strong reason for Gilbert's breakdown; instead, it just seems like she whines a lot. Gilbert seems to envision this long journey on a whim, overnight. The movie also fails to mention Gilbert's big book deal, which financed her romp across the world; this is one of the bigger issues I have with the idea behind the Eat Pray Love book, and therefore view some aspects of Gilbert's trek as a sham.

Gilbert's journey has inspired millions; if nothing else, this film gave me the desire to finally pick up Gilbert's memoir, and she how she describes her life-changing experience. Eat Pray Love did give me the desire to travel the world, to find a new center for myself. I just wish this film that given me more of that experience, and given me something more inspiring to cling to when the light went up. D