|
EAT PRAY LOVE Send This Review to a Friend
On screen the memoir written by Elizabeth Gilbert comes across as a viable, intermittently entertaining but not especially compelling tale of a woman searching to find herself when there isn’t much there to find. Yes, in “Eat Pray Love” popular actress Julia Roberts deservedly commands attention as Liz Gilbert, a magazine writer, on her international quest, but apart from getting some satisfaction out of trying her hand at being a do-gooder, the Liz we see is on a wild goose chase. She has dumped her husband and the life she finds boring and habitually defined by relationships with men in order to learn to like herself for herself. But ultimately, who comes into the picture but handsome, seductive Javier Bardem as Felipe, a divorced Brazilian living in Bali. I’m sure there are many women who would like nothing better than to be defined by Bardem as Filipe or any other character. In fact, it is only when he comes on the scene that the film really becomes energized and Liz gets to believe in her self-worth.
The first half hour or so into the film, directed by Ryan Murphy, who scripted it with Jennifer Salt, is a rather dull recounting of how Liz decides to divorce her uninteresting husband Stephen (Billy Crudup) and how she gets the hots for young actor David (James Franco). There is mulling-over dialogue with her friend Delia (Viola Davis). Finally, off Liz goes to Italy, and a flash of spark erupts, partly as a result of capturing some of that country’s spirit, but also because of Liz’s new zest for life. That is epitomized when she digs with gusto into a plate of pasta, never mind the calories. She also accumulates some friends, especially the Swedish Sofi (Tuva Novotny).
Next it is on to India and the experience of an ashram. This is the “pray” part of the film and how much you can take of it depends on your tolerance for this sort of religious experience. Admittedly, mine is low. There she meets Richard, a Texan (Richard Jenkins), who befriends her and ultimately details the sad past from which he is trying to recover, a past that makes her dissatisfactions look embarrassingly miniscule. Before departing, he provides abundant advice about life.
In Bali, where Liz on a previous writing assignment had made the acquaintance a kind, all-wise, partially toothless medicine man, she seeks him out again. Hadi Subiyanto as Ketut dispenses supposed wisdom as if his profession were writing fortune cookies.
Enter Bardem as Filipe and life for Liz will never be the same. But once again it is being defined by a relationship with a man. Throughout there are bursts of memoir voice-overs, as well as some annoyingly interrupting flashbacks of how new situations Liz faces recall past experiences.
This is one of those movies one can probably define as a women’s picture. There may be built-in connections felt more keenly than how a man might feel them. But from this viewpoint “Eat Pray Love” seems like a fairly empty exercise enlivened primarily by watching Julia Roberts do her thing. A Columbia Pictures release.
|