In one of the first few scenes of Eat Pray Love, main character Liz Gilbert (Julia Roberts) attends the production of a play she has authored. The production is a disaster, and there are numerous sour comments and walkouts. Gilbert, however, is blinded by the charm of the lead actor, David Piccolo (James Franco), and she brushes the failure off with an "I'm not everyone's cup of tea" comment. In retrospect, I see that this scene was simply a metaphorical definition for the whole movie.
The movie is based on Elizabeth Gilbert's memoir Eat, Pray, Love. Liz Gilbert decides she is unhappy in her marriage, and after filing for a divorce, moves on to an affair with David Piccolo until she finally decides to clean up her muddled life. She then concludes that she must first learn to love herself and then to love God before she can ever have a lasting and true relationship.
Each country on Gilbert's journey represents a different aspect of the title. In Italy, she ventures on a "No Carb Left Behind" experience for the physical nourishment in her soul-searching - eat. In India, she explores how to find spiritual nourishment - pray. And in Indonesia, she redefines her concepts of romance - love.
I will admit that I broke one of my cardinal rules when I went to see this movie: I did not read the book first. Whether it is my loss or my advantage, I now have no desire to do so.
In the movie, the characters reiterate a theme that one should be able to define anything, even the self, with a single word. I define Eat Pray Love with the word "mediocrity."
Not even the prowess of Julia Roberts can save the movie from its dull pacing and anticlimactic highlights. Gilbert lacks the fire and nerve that Roberts has brought to so many characters in films like Mona Lisa Smile, Steel Magnolias and even the Ocean's Eleven series.
I couldn't sympathize with the "plight" of the main character. She cuts all marital knots with her husband, offering the main excuse that she has simply outgrown him. For the next half of the movie, she masquerades as the wounded divorcee, weighed down not only by heartbreak but also by a need for forgiveness. I personally thought she deserved a little more guilt.
The foreign journey, which was supposed to be gallant and inspiring, seemed phony and insincere. The movie fails to mention the details that Gilbert financed the adventure with an advance on a book she planned to write - a book about her trip. I am still skeptical about the legitimacy of her "soul-searching" when it clearly formed the content of her payroll.
The most impressive part of the film was Italian cuisine; Gilbert's best revelations were made on the topic of eating. Her epiphanies about religion and love, however, were formed during such short time spans that they simply seemed one-dimensional and shallow.
Perhaps it is simply that Gilbert is not my "cup of tea." The whole story reminded me of an inferior version of Under the Tuscan Sun, a movie based on Frances Mayes' memoir. In that film, Mayes (Diane Lane) decides to renovate and move into a villa in Tuscany after divorcing her cheating husband. It's easy to fall in love with her character and support her choice to turn a new page in life - she doesn't take a vacation from reality, she creates a new one. Divorce, travel, Italian culture ... Does it sound familiar? The two stories are so alike that I have to wonder if Gilbert didn't have some outside inspiration. Unless you fell in love with Gilbert's book, I recommend you save yourself the $10 movie ticket and rent Under the Tuscan Sun instead.
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