Cheap booze for the woman's soul: 'Eat, Pray, Love' — 3 out of 5 stars
For those who have read Elizabeth Gilbert’s memoir, “Eat Pray Love,” step away from this review. Spare us your condescending critic — of course the book was better.
Now for everyone else, “Eat Pray Love” is exactly what the audience ordered. Complete with its own Fabio, it is the indulgence of a Harlequin Romance intertwined with the arousing scenery displayed on the Travel Channel.
Director Ryan Murphy’s “Eat Pray Love” is one woman’s journey to self-discovery and spiritual balance. Within the beginning scenes, an unsatisfied New York writer, Liz Gilbert (Julia Roberts) dramatically falls to her bathroom floor asking God how to fix her broken life. The solution: divorce, followed by a rebound fling with eye candy David Piccolo (James Franco).
But after this remedy fails to satisfy, Gilbert jets off on a yearlong world excursion to reignite her passions and discover her balance in life. She devours her way though Italy, prays her way through India and in Bali, she finds love for herself and love for a steamy Brazilian man, played by no other than Javier Bardem.
The quixotic collection of characters give this film its laugh out loud moments despite its cheese filling — the toothless medicine man in Bali, the intriguing Texan in India (Richard Jenkins) well-versed in the travesties of life and the quirky husband Gilbert left behind.
The highest pleasure of this film is irrefutably the breathtaking cinematography. Murphy and cinematographer Roger Richardson arouse the senses, presenting images of luscious Italian cuisine and awe-inspiring scenic backdrops.
The dialogue provokes thought and opens the imagination, but at times it feels like a continuous stream of bumper sticker slogans and daily words of wisdom from a desktop flip calendar. By the end of the movie, viewers are literally choking on inspirational phrases.
A hearty concoction of inspiration and intelligence with a few quirks, “Eat Pray Love” fulfills the wants of the audience it was intended to address — it is cheap booze for the woman’s soul. It quenches sappy minds, makes the viewer happy and manifests lofty ideals in the audience’s heads. It is an enjoyable adventure, but by the end, spectators are ready to go home.
