Mick LaSalle

22 May 2012

It's about something important, the search for meaning and happiness, about finding one's inner life amid the clutter and confusion of modern existence.

Jeff Bayer

22 May 2012

I saw it. I didn't feel it. Look, I'm happy for Julia Roberts to travel the world. I just never felt connected to the journey of Liz.

21 May 2012

Selfish, Unsympathetic, Shallow

Let me preface this by mentioning I haven't read the book, though I've been meaning to, and after seeing the film first, I can only hope the book form is better. As a travel buff, I've been looking forward to watching this film, and I knew from the get-go that this would be a film about a woman's ennui and unfulfilled life. Yes, I know, first world problems--cue roll of the eyes. But I think many people can relate to the emptiness that pervades life on occasion.That being said, even as someone sympathetic to this kind of plight, I found the character Liz to be utterly insufferable and a practically impossible woman to relate to. The film has Liz, lying in bed with her husband, looking bored and lonely. She gets out of the bed she shares with her husband to go downstairs to literally kneel down and ask for God's help for the first time, sobbing in the room of her multi-million dollar home. The problem with this entire premise is that her emptiness isn't presented in a way that is relatable to the audience. With film, the exercise is to convey what is inside by external means; the audience cannot magically divine what is going on with the characters. I understand what the INTENT was: her husband doesn't have the travel bug; her husband has ideas but doesn't stick to a single one to make it his passion; her husband doesn't share her curiosity of life, an inclination for what is MORE; she has it all but is still unsatisfied--there's no spark, no excitement. But for me these were not conveyed convincingly. Instead, we have Julia Roberts (playing Julia Roberts) crying, staring at the wall, yelling, acting like an overgrown brat with an alarming sense of entitlement. She purports to look within, but she doesn't. She turns her rage to those around her, and that's a fatal flaw in the film from which it never recovers. The premise is very promising and intriguing: woman with all the trappings of life searches for more meaning in life by empowering herself--after all, it is often touted that money cannot buy happiness, and there are situations in real life where people who don't have much are happier than those with a lot (more money, more problems). Depression, for example, doesn't skip a person just because he or she is wealthy. Money and material goods are clearly not guaranteed keys to happiness and fulfillment. But instead of taking the opportunity to lay that foundation and build upon this premise, the filmmakers seem to skip it altogether in favor of pretty travel shots, apparently unable to take on the storytelling task. Is it difficult, especially in this economy, to make a film about the dissatisfaction and existential angst of a well-off woman? Yes. But it is not impossible, and if they are going to make a film based on this premise, they better well try to sway the audience. Unfortunately, they seem to just rely on Julia Roberts' "America's Sweetheart" status to replace effective narrative. The idea itself is interesting; the execution is the problem (most people can relate to the experience of seeing a fantastic trailer for a film or reading a film summary and getting excited, only to be disappointed after seeing the actual film).In a meeting with the lawyers and her husband, Liz glares at her husband with the fire of a thousand suns, resenting him for being, well, him. Rightfully, her husband frustratingly informs her that she never sat him down to tell him what's wrong, never gave him a chance to try to fix it if she had such a problem in the marriage. The audience really only sees what ANNOYS her (e.g., he wants to do a postgraduate degree, he doesn't want to go to Aruba). Are these "flaws" big enough for her to just walk out one day? At least this warrants a serious sit-down talk about each of their goals and feelings, right? No. Liz doesn't feel connected to him, and instead of sitting down like adults, she decides to leave, cold turkey, because if you don't get what you want out of life, the lesson is you must drop all your problems and run. It is understandable for someone to want to end a marriage if she is unhappy, but to just cut it off abruptly without a serious discussion (and assuming abuse or infidelity haven't occurred, which, in this film, they haven't) is unreasonable and paints the person as a spoiled brat who never learned how to navigate life in an adult world. This is a bad start to a film...an unsympathetic protagonist. Oh, God, how many more minutes do we have to spend with this woman? Did she really just leave her husband because some medicine man in Bali six months before told her one of her marriages would be short? Really? How gullible are you, Liz? The filmmaker really missed out on capitalizing on one genuine moment in the film -- her husband, in the elevator after the meeting with the lawyers, looking truly broken by his wife's abrupt abandonment. Do we get to explore her need to do this in spite of her husband's deep love for her? No, we get Liz's three-second look at his broken figure before she decides to run abroad an cavort with strangers who are meant to fix all her problems.Throughout the film, Liz makes no real decisions; rather, she allows others to do the thinking for her, which makes for tiresome viewing. The writing and direction are aimless and sloppy. Far too much of the film is spent on her romance with a struggling actor, David (James Franco), who is more of a caricature than someone along the road who truly enlightens Liz and helps her on her journey. He's young. He's handsome. He follows an Indian guru (shrine adorning his apartment), sounds like a fortune cookie, and is a complete poser. He states he has never been to India, but he wants to one day, and spends his day looking sexily forlorn, a tortured soul, when, in fact, he's just like those wannabe Goths who shop at Hot Topic (except he's the hippie version). One day, he wakes up to find half of his bed empty. Where's Liz? She has moved herself to the floor beside the bed, looking like someone just killed her puppy. Again, she doesn't talk about the problem. She just moved her bed to the floor like a petulant child because, again, as with her husband, she's unfulfilled and wants to break up for no discernible reason. Okay, maybe Prozac is in order?We are meant to take away from this romance the idea that David inspired Liz's trip to India. After all, she never would have known about that guru if it weren't for this poser. Get it, audience? Each person she meets is like a clue to the next spot on the treasure map. Get it? Except the character of David is so hastily written and lazily portrayed that the impact of his influence is negligible (seriously, James Franco looked like he phoned-in his scenes, and even he admitted that he knows the film is terrible and that he only did this film to have the experience of working with Julia Roberts).The Italy chapter of the film is the most enjoyable, simply because it plays like a fun travelogue -- food porn, fun people, pretty sights. Here, we get a little break from Liz's overbearing personality. We meet some other characters who welcome Liz with open arms, and there are beautiful shots of quaint cafes and restaurants, plates of delicious food, and beautiful cityscapes. For once, we get to see Liz just ENJOYING herself without lashing out, and for a moment the audience can forget Liz as Liz; she's just an American enjoying Italy like any tourist would, looking at Italy with new eyes.I expected the film to escalate and become even more profound as we head to India, but the narrative takes a serious and boring dip here. You know all the foodcentric tie-ins in the promotion of this movie? It ends with Italy, and it is understandable, seeing that Italy is the "eat" of the triumvirate, but since the spirituality aspects of India and Bali are so clumsily portrayed that one cannot help but feel cheated by the rest of the film. Okay, if we can't have genuine spirituality, at least show how decadent the other places are. There's more to India and Bali than ashrams and huts. It's as if the writers and filmmaker didn't know what to do about India. "Hm, what's India known for? Gods! And poor people. Okay, this part of the film will be about Gods and poor people. It'll be like a spiritual thang." So we have Liz living in an ashram, cleaning and doing practically nothing, and this is where she meets a Texan named Richard, played by the amazing Richard Jenkins, the highlight of the film. Though his character is paper-thin, Jenkins is so gifted and nuanced in his acting that he's able to flesh out a full character out of practically nothing. He's like your favorite uncle who wise-cracks and kicks you in the seat of your pants once in a while to set you straight. It is too bad that his character disappears rather quickly, which deflates the rest of the film. The writers try to flesh out India by introducing a 17-year-old girl forced into an arranged marriage (a heavy-handed parallel to Liz's own marriage, complete with flashbacks), but by then it is too late. Chapter 2 is already dead in the water. There's no spiritual enlightenment, just a disrespectful fast food approach to prayer and meditation. You just sit quietly, cross your legs, close your eyes, and spread your arms out. That's all, folks. The film then skips abruptly to Bali, as if it did all it could do in India. Here we have the return of the toothless guru, who, like the Franco character, speaks like a fortune cookie and appears more like a stereotype more than anything else. Liz refers to him as "Yoda." He's quirky, speaks with an accent, wears a sarong, and reads your palm...OF COURSE he's enlightened! He's from Bali! He's infused with magic! All the houses have no walls. It's really weird here! When the quirkiness of Bali runs thin, it's time to introduce Felipe (Javier Bardem), an affectionate grizzly bear of a man who kisses his son on the mouth and cries at the drop of a hat. He's not American! He's Brazilian! Passionate! That's what Liz needs! But after his profession of his love, Liz immediately pulls away and starts screaming at him, feeling suffocated. Really, Liz? It's his fault for falling in love and cramping your style? How dare he say it! He's supposed to be passionate -- but to a point, to some invisible marker that Liz draws in the air. Here, Liz comes off as bipolar, running hot and cold at the drop of a hat without rhyme or reason; she is angry at anyone who doesn't read your mind. At this point, the film suffers even more because it is unclear to the audience WHY he's in love with her. He professes to be madly in love with Liz, but it's a head-scratcher why because we do not see her as very lovable at all. She's a screeching banshee of a woman who doesn't seem to be aware of her own motivations, so the relationship itself seems forced, and, by this time in the film, it is too late to build this relationship up as The Relationship in the entire film (yet it is, to the detriment of the narrative; it wasted far too much time with David before introducing Felipe late in the game). She runs away, but one last minute trip to the all-knowing toothless guru, who tells her to open her heart, magically clicks in her head (despite people saying this throughout the film), and she runs back to Felipe and they live happily ever after. Instead of giving any of the foreign characters some real depth, the film paints them in broad stereotypical strokes. The film never recovers from its biggest malaise: Liz is not sympathetic or relatable. We The Audience watch her cry, look empty, wander, and we can imagine what that's like from drawing on our own lives, but we do not FEEL for her because she isn't even active in her own life. Throughout the film, she is passive (funny, considering all the traveling she decides to do), but in every scene she doesn't seem to help herself, and feels like it is life's duty to provide others who will help her out of her slump. Liz begins the film financially comfortable, with an enviable job, a nice husband, a gorgeous home, and loving friends and family -- it will take some good strong storytelling to convince the audience why she feels unsatisfied. But the director and writers rely too much on the audience just being able to GET IT so the film can skip off to the three countries for the pretty shots. There is no compelling scene that shows Liz and her husband's true unfixable disconnect. We're just supposed to accept there is one from Liz's tears and blank stares at the wall and move on. There's nothing at all that convinces the audience that this gilded cage is suffocating; if anything, we understand Liz as a woman who just needs a good therapist and some volunteer work around the corner (but no, the film seems to say...you can't volunteer at home; you must have a profound experience with poor people abroad). The shot at the end of her ex-husband with a baby and new wife, strolling happily down the street, is meant to show the audience that Liz was right all along, that they were never meant to be, but it feels false and tacked-on instead of true vindication. The problem is, most people in the audience don't have the luxury of taking a year off to vacation in three countries to find themselves, so if you are going to make a film about an unfulfilled woman who CAN do all of this (and a film with merchandise tie-ins that include BUDDHIST prayer beads), it would be nice for the filmmakers to make the point that happiness doesn't merely lie in stamps in your passport; rather, it's a journey you can take at home. You can meet wonderful people at your corner coffee shop and develop meaningful friendships. You can volunteer at a local shelter and find purpose. If you stopped enjoying food, you can find new recipes or cuisines to try. Unfortunately, the film clearly pushes the idea that for Liz, her existing family and friends aren't enough; she feels an ashram or guru (both stereotyped in the film) is the secret of finding herself; and she even proclaims that the food in her current area doesn't do it for her anymore. The whole film reads like a commercial for the travel industry more than an illuminating lesson of a woman at a crossroads in her life that each audience member can apply to his or her own life. If you want to make a film about a woman who is empowered by dropping it all to find more meaning out of life (and more power to her for doing that), great; it'd just be a lot more effective sans the cultural appropriation (the East is so mystical and weird!) and commercialization. For example, take the $36 Eat Pray Love Lancome lip glosses, one of the many official merchandise tie-ins). It's kind of incongruent to market a film about materialism not buying happiness by selling lipglosses. In short, the film is like one of those gimmicky Zen boxes you see by the registers at Borders: watered-down to non-existence and insulting.

roshanup

20 May 2012

A fantastic move after a long time

A must see and a fantastic movie. The story of everyone. We all gothrough similar stages in our life. Fantastic location with nice scenesfrom Italy and Bali and great things about meditation in India. Theplot is excellent. It spellbound right through the end. A strongperformance by Julia Roberts. The movie try to explain self conflictand the inner enlightenment of personal being in an interesting way.The movie would be a more interest to educated and mature audience.Only the complaint I have is the guy she fell in love at the end, thescript is little weak to show the strong bond between them. But overallit's a marvellous piece of work from Julia Roberts once again. Iwouldn't be surprised if the movie wins couple of Oscar awards.

Andy Klein

18 May 2012

During the India scenes, Liz accuses Richard from Texas of spouting a bunch of bumper-sticker slogans... as though her revelations are any better.

jc-osms

17 May 2012

Watch, sleep, forget

...or everybody loves Julia. Free-thinking, never-been-to-me writerLiz, (Julia Roberts) decides to escape the rat race and herwell-meaning but smothering husband to, of course, find her true selfby travelling to Italy, India and Bali, as you would and experiencingreal life in the process. We all should have her problems. And yes, by the end, she's made umpteen life-long friendships, foundher own guru and the power of zen, built a new home for a single-parentand child from contributions solicited from the afore-mentioned newpals and of course to top it all off, finds true love way out east to ahandsome, swarthy Brazilian, who openly discusses his sex-life with his19 year-old Australian (don't ask me why) son whom he kisses on thelips at goodbyes. Along the way she breaks the hearts of two younghandsome guys, turns down another and connects seriously with everyonefrom a Swedish tourist and her tutor in Italy, a recovering Texanalcoholic and teenage girl going through an arranged marriage in Indianot forgetting her Latin lover, toothless ancient swami and hishomeless nurse in Bali. Yes indeed, love surely grows where Lizziegoes.The writing and acting are frequently look-away bad, the whole thinglooking like a woman's magazine piece bloated out of all recognition.For some reason too, 70's music features heavily in the soundtrack - Ijust wondered what Neil Young might have made of two of his songs beingpressed into action in support of this unbelievable, over-sentimentalnonsense. I can think of only one praiseworthy thing to say about this film...er,nice locations.

Dezhda Gaubert

16 May 2012

Most of what made the book connect with so many is entirely missing here.

David Denby

16 May 2012

We're not so much involved in the movie as idly registering it -- eavesdropping, almost, on a conversation at an adjoining table.

Roger Ebert

15 May 2012

You can see how it would be fun to spend a year traveling with Gilbert. A lot more fun than spending nearly 2.5 hours watching a movie about it.

15 May 2012

emotionally and spiritually uplifting--for rich people

didn't think I would, but I did like this movie. I tend not to care too much for melodramatic movies about the rich and their little problems, but...If you aren't sick of movies about very wealthy people having spiritual crises and going off to find themselves (and extremely handsome lovers), it's worth a watch.

craigsut

10 May 2012

Excellent, a life changing film

Great film, wonderful acting, great story and lovely places visited. Ican see why people would criticise this film to death, that's becauseyou have not experienced love like this.Julia Roberts is fantastic in this film, a really mature and empathicperformance. The emotional subjects are really done well, the directorhas to be congratulated at filming this film at the right pace. Thehumour is simple but very touching.The film touched me very deeply, its the only film where my girlfriendand i cried together at the end. The film will help you to make senseof the partners you have chosen in the past and it will touch those whoonly ever wanted to be happy and in love....attraversiamo x

David Michael Brown

09 May 2012

Preaching to the converted, fans of the book should be sated. Julia Roberts is easy to love.

Thomas Leupp

06 May 2012

You know your movie's in trouble when its star is outshined by a bowl of spaghetti.

meserethassan

05 May 2012

Eat Pray Love

Firstly, I have never written a review about a movie BUT having readthrough the comments that most of you have left about this movie I justhad to. Firstly, why did you bother going to see a movie like this ifyou are going to completely criticise everything about it; the wholepoint of the story is ONE PERSON'S life and the personal decisions thatsomeone has to make?!?!?!? Do you not think we hear enough about 'war,famine, rape, murder' in our daily life/news. This movie is/and wasnever going to be about that – surely title gave it away 'EAT PRAYLOVE'… NOT 'FAMINE, CLIMATE CHANGE, MURDER' EPL is a movie about themost intimate thoughts and feelings a of a modern woman who is caughtup in a life she does not want and how she develops and changesherself/her life for the benefit herself and others around her – and tomost of you that's a selfish thing to do?!?!?! REALLY!!!! I thoughtthat EPL was brilliant. Your comments 'she is selfish', 'what planet isshe from'... just because Liz was living a life that society 'thinks'we should be living, (married to a lovely man, beautiful home) does notmean she will be happy doing it does it?! AT LEAST she was a decent andstrong person and didn't cheat on her husband (which so many do) orrely on happy pills or alcohol to get herself through the day (whichmany people do). She took herself away from her life and tried toreconnect with what she wants in life. And I'm also guessing that NONEOF YOU have actually meditated, or spent time in an ashram or been'silent' for any length of time?! I recommend you do it and then watchthe movie again. Regular meditation, being silent for a length of timeand all of those other so called 'hippy' things that she does areextremely enlightening and truly magical… thing is, not everyone canhandle it… it's not easy taking a good hard look at yourself. The otherinteresting thing is that regardless of whether you're happy or unhappyin your current life, the things that Liz incorporates into her lifeare extremely beneficial and if we all spent time doing those things,life would see much brighter, simpler and happier place. I feelslightly sorry for those that cannot see the simple beauty in this TRUESTORY that was originally meant to be a kind of 'self help' book… thatthings happen for a reason and that people come and go in our life(male, female, young and old) and that you need to be true to yourselfto be truly happy in your own skin.

04 May 2012

Julia is wonderful

This review is from: Eat Pray Love (DVD) I loved this movie! It brought the viewer through so many emotions we women of a certain age go through. Now only if we all could make the life choice to live our dreams.

lauraleesmith0

04 May 2012

Good but not Excellent

Many of the Reviews here are written by men who can't stand the factthat a female lead character actually chose to seek her own lifedesires rather than conform to what her upbringing had taught her towant. They are exactly what this movie is talking about.The role is perfectly cast with Julia Roberts... a woman who's onlydesire in life was to get married to a handsome Rich man and have kids,but when she has her marriage she's in agony. This is not what sheREALLY wanted. So she decides to go after what she wants rather thanwhat people have told her to want. On her journey she meets many womenwho attack her the same way for not having a husband and catering tohim. In one scene an Italian matriarch attacks her and she is told "Ifshe were a man you wouldn't be attacking her this way." To which theMatriarch replies "But she's not a man. She's a woman." And that rightthere sums up the message of the movie. How hard it can be for women tofind what they want out of life when all their lives they are TOLD whatthey SHOULD want and not allowed to seek their own desires.The problem however is that this character is also supposedly asuccessful writer. Now- I never bought her as an introvert writer and Ithink this mostly has to do with the script which was better than mostHollywood scripts, but left much to be desired when it glossed overmany things. Also the character comes from NYC.. which is a place thatmost women feel free to compete with the big boys. Now I know thatplace doesn't mean a woman isn't pressured into becoming a housewife.Being Latina growing up in NYC I myself was denied college by myparents because they felt my goal in life was to serve a husband, so Ihad to pay my way through school while they paid for and supported mylittle brother.. So yes, I know it's possible to live in NYC and stillhave to deal with 17th century bias, but the script didn't do much toexplain how it is that this white woman living in NYC got to be in thisposition. Sure she passingly says that she never had a chance to reallyfind what SHE wanted, but more background into that would've made iteasier to relate to the character. Another flaw is that you never feellike you're IN the movie. You often feel more just like an observer. Istill would recommend this movie, but just know that it could've beenbetter.

03 May 2012

Unlikable character who is totally selfish. Very slow.

Julia Roberts character starts the movie married. He is totally devoted to her but she looks at him with total contempt from the beginning. The first part of the movie is about her mid-life crises. She feels trapped and wants to selfishly abandon her husband to travel the world. Despite everyone around her telling her she is acting like a teenager or early twenty year old, she divorces her husband. In the divorce proceedings he even turns down all her money and says he just wants her; he also laments she never told him she was unhappy, just left (she instantly starts sleeping with a much younger man-I mean instantly). She then leaves to go and do what the movie should be called, "Eat, sleep with Younger Guys and Be Selfish" How many women would love this movie if the main character was a man? What if the man instantly left his wife and started sleeping around? He would be a "pig" and they would hate the move. Falling in love is easy, staying in love is hard; it takes work. With "Hollywood" role models guiding so much of our life, I wonder why our divorce rate is 50%?

Christopher Lloyd

02 May 2012

I admired Julia Roberts' grasping for something meatier, but this film sticks her with an unrelatable character that even her coltish smile can't beautify.

Randy Myers

02 May 2012

Supply acted and engrossing.

capone666

01 May 2012

The Vidiot Reviews...

Eat Pray LoveDing-ding-ding! What are three things you do at church: Eat McGriddles,Pray to Santa and make Love in the confessional.Oops. Apparently this isn't a game show, but one woman's journey ofself-discovery that finds her traveling the globe.After her divorce, Elizabeth (Julia Roberts) decides she needs to findherself. In this case, however, "herself" happens to be eating inItaly, meditating in India and flirting in Bali.At each of her destinations, Elizabeth ascertains a new life lessonfrom one of the men (James Franco, Richard Jenkins, Javier Bardem) sheencounters along the way.Based on the popular novel, Eat Pray Love is an overwrought productionthat caters to chick flick fans and the self-help crowd. Egocentric,placid and long-winded, Eat Pray Love is most peoples' life in anutshell.As for those who cannot afford a yearlong sabbatical to findthemselves, dropping acid gets the same results. (Yellow Light)