Based on the hugely successful autobiographical novel, "Eat,Pray,Love" by Elizabeth Gilbert and now converted to the big screen by director Ryan Murphy and staring the fantastic Julia Roberts, Eat Pray Love tells the story of Liz a woman who believes something is missing from her life. From the age of 15, she has either been in and out of relationships and has forgotten the important things that matter to her, that create her. On an assignment (she is a writer by the way) she is told by an elderly medicine man in Bali that she will have one short and one long romance, she will lose all her money, but get it back and that she will come back to Bali to teach him English. This implants the seed in her mind as one day (6 months later) she breaks down and asks God for a sign of what she should do. It turns out it is to divorce her husband (Billy Crudup) and move on with her own goals in life. However, Liz follows her same pattern in life and tries to find her joy in her rebound guy David (James Franco), when it suddenly dawns on her, she must leave and find out what truly makes her happy and what path she needs to follow in order to get there. So for one year of her life she is going to spend four months in Italy (Eat), four months in India (Pray) and four months in Bali (Love). This is when the movie hits it's charm and allows the audience to escape with Liz on her quest for freedom and happiness. I am not going to say anymore, but the journey is a great one.
Ryan Murphy has done a great job in my opinion converting this hugely popular and successful book to the screen. Although Ryan did bring another great novel Running With Scissors (rent it, it's fantastic) to the big screen so he knows what he is doing. Although, like Running With Scissors, Ryan has been criticised for missing a lot of the emotion in the books, but come on, you are not going to please everyone. Books are our own imaging of the story. A movie is one person's interpretation of the words. We all can't have the same perspective, and to me, Ryan has delivered a solid movie. The scenery is beautifully shot, with each country showing its wonder and attraction and why this woman would want to visit these countries. Ryan moves the pace along nicely, showing each section of the story to be as important as the next, without chopping it up and favouring one storyline over the other. I feel the man has a great imagination and really has a way with his work (check out Glee if you don't believe me).
Now for the performances. I was very wary of Julia Roberts when I heard she was doing this movie. I have always had a soft spot for her with many of her movies in my top list, but Liz is a very complex character and needed to be an everyday person, and not an "A List: movie star. Julia hit the nail on the head, not once did I not believe her as Liz and to me, this was the performance to put her back on the acting map once again. Through her emotions and journey we feel every element of her character and want her to find her inner happiness. We want to embrace these countries with her and the characters she meets along the way. I say good work girl, stuff the critics who have criticised you, I for one think you were fantastic.
But Julia isn't the only one to take centre stage. A great supporting cast rounded out this movie extremely well. James Franco was once again proving his ability as a great actor as David. Viola Davies as her best friend, brings her witty and extremely scene stealing acting to the piece. Javier Bardem is the right ingredient to add to the mix as her new love interest, but to me it was Richard Jenkins once again proving to be a great assets to any movie. His relationship was one of the best with Julia in India. He brought so much character and liveliness, but with his own shame to the scenes that I couldn't get enough of him. This man is amazing.
The only downfall to me in this movie were two things. Billy Crudup as her ex husband who was just awful. I have never been a fan of his work, and to me it was just wrong casting. He was annoying and really I didn't feel he even wanted to be in this movie. The other was a scene with an elephant. I'm not going to spoil it, but I sorted went "what the?" in my head.
I think you can guess though if I liked this movie or not. I for one welcomed this story with open arms into my cinema experience. To me it was fantastic. The scenery, the directing, the acting. To be inspired by a movie is a rarity these days, but Eat Pray Love, proves just that. An ordinary woman on a quest for her happiness in life. Many may call it selfish. Others motivated. Let it in to your life and see what you think. You may be very surprised of what comes out. 8.5/10
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