Eat Pray Love is based off the popular memoir by writer Elizabeth Gilbert. In the film though she is known as Liz. Now books are different than films. I have not read the book but strongly believe that the two should not be compared because they are different mediums. That is a different discussion all together.
In the film, Liz (Julia Roberts) is in an unhappy marriage. She also feels that her life has lost it's passion and meaning. Her search for greater meaning in life is ignited by a conversation with a medicine man on a trip investigating meditation and yoga in Bali. The medicine man spoke to Liz concerning her unhappiness with her marriage and how she will lose all that she has only to regain it again. She returns home to New York City and decides to divorce her husband (Billy Crudup) which her husband contests, move out of her home, date and then end things with a young actor (James Franco).
After the divorce and new romance, Liz is still unhappy. She says that she has lost her passion for life which leads her to go on a one year journey to Italy, India and Bali. In Italy she will eat and enjoy life. In India she will meet her guru and pray. In Bali she will reconnect with the medicine man and learn all that the medicine man knows.
It can be difficult to show a character's passion for food, growth in spirituality and enlightenment through knowledge and meditation without the character overtly expressing it. Eat Pray Love tries to do this and fails. We see Liz eat lots of pasta, little pastries and drink wine in Italy. Julia Roberts still has a wonderfully unique smile but her smile after devouring tasty food does nothing to show the growth of her character and her embracing "life." While in India there are several scenes in which Roberts is seen praying or trying to pray. Watching her pray over and over again is meant to imply spiritual growth but the film also fails to capturing that. She goes to Bali to learn from the medicine man but she spends more time sleeping and hanging out with Bardem rather than learning from the medicine man. She is not even willing to hand copy his lessons intended for her. She takes them and photo copies them which is meant to be cute but in many ways displays how shallow her exploration towards harmony and balance really is.
The film itself is very shallow. We don't explore living life, prayer, meditation, yoga or love in any profound way or with any depth. Watching Julia Roberts eat a couple bowls of pasta, pray here and there and meet guys doesn't explore the themes of the film but casually presents them in a manner that makes finding balance in life all too simple. It's a middle class yuppie notion of spirituality and love. Little is truly known about Liz's character as her exploration only reveals how her marriage failed and nothing about what brought her to such unhappiness.
The film might be best served as a travelogue for Italy, India and Bali. Throughout the film, Liz goes to these places and enjoys the classic beauty of these places with little to none of the flaws. She travels for a year with one bag, yet her outfits are different every time but she always looks fabulous. She is always clean, never sweats and fails to experience any of the hardships of the people that reside in her vacations hot spots. Because of this, the film superficially suggest that you can find balance in your life by going on a long vacation, drinking, eating, praying and meeting a nice man.
The film does have some decent qualities. Julia Roberts is very strong in the lead, in what could be defined as a transitional role. As someone over the age of 40, Roberts may struggle to find roles that don't make her look silly by trying too hard to show how young she might be. Tom Cruise has yet to discover this, as the almost 50 year old Cruise still believes he can play a 30 year old. Roberts is quite good. She doesn't rely on her laugh or smile to propel her through the role. She is subtle and very charming. She is able to bring a a certain child like discovery to her journey but a certain sadness of youthful exuberance lost during down periods. In her 40's Roberts could not have played the early 30's Liz while in her 30's. It seems like a role Roberts was meant to play during this stage of her career. Javier Bardem is also excellent as Liz's love interest in Bali. Bardem does a lot with his screen time. We see him cry, laugh, be charming and argue with Roberts in a way that is both alarming and agreeable.
The dialogue is also very resourceful. Eat Pray Love is written by director Ryan Murphy and Jennifer Salt. It uses the dialogue very well in understanding the minor characters we see for only 1/3 of the film. Unfortunately in many ways we learn small details about the minor characters that we never learn about Liz. This could also be a problem. We learn so much about the other characters and hardly anything about Liz. It is because of that the film tends to drag. It drags because there are so many characters, so many places and the pattern of the film becomes far to apparent early in the film.
Love Eat Pray is probably a very good book but as a movie it seems like a self indulgent travel guide. Is it beautiful to look at? At times, yes? Does it make you hungry? Yes. Would you want to travel to these places afterwards? Probably. Is it funny or profound? Maybe as funny or profound as a fortune cookie can be. In the end, Eat Love Pray seems to reach only a small audience of upper class, superficially lost women that don't need spirituality but a man in their lives. Maybe Eat Pray Love will be the Starbucks drinking, Banana Republic wearing, Oprah book club reading version of Sex and the City.... oh boy.
