Eat Pray Love
Rating: 4/10
Cast: Julia Roberts, Billy Crudup, James Franco, Javier Bardem, Richard Jenkin
Director: Ryan Murphy
From the incredibly popular book by Elizabeth Gilbert and from the director who brought us Nip/Tuck and Glee comes this cinematic version of Eat, Pray, Love.
Julia Roberts stars as magazine writer Liz Gilbert, who's quite frankly restless in her married life with Stephen (Crudup) - one day, after much agonizing and following a chance visit to a Balinese medicine man, she decides to split from hubby and head around the world for a year to find herself again.
So she starts off in Italy, before heading to India and ending the year in Bali - on each journey, there's something to help her re-build. In Italy, it's the nourishment of food; in India, it's the replenishment of the spirit and in Bali, it's finally time for her heart to re-heal.
Along the way, Liz meets different men who have varying effects on her life - there's James Franco's David, the man she rebounds to after her divorce; in India there's the ever marvellous Richard Jenkin's Richard from Texas and finally in Bali, there's Javier Bardem's Felipe who reignites something in her heart.
Eat Pray Love is going to appeal to a certain sector of the audience; those who like the bon mots like "Having a baby is like having a tattoo on your face - you have to be fully committed"; that said, Julia Roberts is good as Liz but she can't carry the film which towards the end begins to sag and feel quite long and drawn out.
It looks beautiful in Italy - all the postcard picture perfect food and scenery remind you why the country is so popular; in India, it's Richard Jenkin's brilliant turn who instils some heart into the film but the whole thing is curiously unemotional for what should be a satisfying journey.
For a film which should be about soul, there's sadly too much of this lacking and not enough passion on display.
It's a shame because Roberts does the gamut of emotions well - but the film takes too long to get to its resolution and despite jabs of humour here and there, there's not enough to sustain Eat Pray Love as the nourishing experience it clearly longs to be.
Watch the trailer for Eat, Pray Love here.
Watch a scene from Eat, Pray, Love here
