Eat, Pray, Love

On paper maybe this movie seems like a better idea. After all it did spend over 155 weeks on the New York Times best seller list. It is fantasy gone right and maybe that is the appeal of the story, we get to live out our desires through another. Bag that, I'd rather go on the trip myself.

Eat, Pray, Love is about Liz Glibert, who for no explicable reason other than not wanting to make cookies, decides to end her marriage. In order to find her balance she goes on a trip across the globe. What is never explained is that the advance she receives pays for her global frolic. Unless we all have people willing to pay for our self indulgent story we may have to be satisfied watching from the stadium seating.

This book has the feel of a Hollywood chick flick, especially the ending. So who better to play the lead role than the star of so many of them? Julia Roberts takes a woman who selfishly leaves her husband and indulges her every whim and makes the character loveable. Roberts still has enormous sex appeal and throughout the movie I couldn't think of a time she looked better. Even with the loud duck like sounds that exit her mouth every time she laughs I still can't help but feel smitten.

While in New York she falls in love with a charming struggling actor whose performance makes people walk out. Who better to cast than James Franco. Surprise surprise, Liz has the same problems with the young guy as she does in her married life. Mike O'Malley and Viola Davis do their best to support our protagonist during this difficult time and their devotion seems genuine. It’s a shame Franco got more screen time than both of them. Well anyway Roberts is tired of it all and decides to run away from all her problems.

Her stay in Italy is the most well done. It may just be easier for Ryan Murphy (co-creator of mega hit Glee) to understand and accentuate this culture more than the others. He has a wonderful segment about Italians talking with their hands and does what is more or less food porn. Do not go to this movie hungry, the most carefully crafted shots in this movie may very well be the shots of food, from the plate of spaghetti, to pizza from Naples, and cheese oozing out of her meal. If that wasn't enough it also comes with a two part thanksgiving dinner. Which is nothing compared to the Del Greco Easter dinner but certainly up there.

The movie then gets bogged down in India where Julia/Liz tries to find her spiritual center and learn the proper way to meditate. Meditation is the action of clearing your mind so it takes a while for anyone to master. Unfortunately that is a lot of screen time devoted to the art of doing nothing which weighs down the 140 minute movie even more. The saving grace of this segment is Richard Jenkins, who plays Richard from Texas, a man who speaks in bumper stickers. His tough treatment and hard life lessons is probably meant to be more endearing in the book, but I liked the character, most likely because I speak fluent asshole.

Then we reach Bali, where she reconnects with the medicine man whose message puts her on this journey in the first place. The toothless medicine man is just as charming as Javier Bardem who is responsible for the love portion of this book.

SPOILER ALERT: AS IN I TALK ABOUT THE ENDING

I really had problems with this relationship as it seems to happen so quick. In the book the words take time to sink in, we can place the book down, let the connections sink in and last a little longer until the next passage. There is no time to let the romance sink in. Also most of the movie is devoted to finding balance for yourself. One of the listed reasons she goes on this trip is she is tired of being identified as part of a relationship. Then in true Hollywood hokum style we see the only way for our Julia Roberts lead to find happiness is through a man. So much for self identification.

SPOILER OVER

The movie in as enjoyable as hearing about a friend’s vacation. All I really wanted to hear was good. Instead I get a story about the most wonderful food ever experienced in a city of unbridled passion, and then a trip to clear my mind of all the clutter that possessed it before, and finally they find a foreign piece of ass with which they had so much sex they started to develop a bladder infection. And then after it all they ask me how is work? Bitch. C