Directed by: Ryan Murphy
Starring: Julia Roberts, Javier Bardem, Richard Jenkins, Billy Crudup
***
Eat Pray Love is the film adaptation of Elizabeth Gilbert's best-selling book; a true story charting a year spent travelling around the world, on a quest of self-discovery. With this in mind, the overriding irony is that this screen adaptation feels rather fake.
Long before the film was made, the memoir was an international bestseller; it has been translated into 30 languages and has sold over seven million copies. Hordes of people (mostly women) recognised themselves in Gilbert, identified with both her tale and tone and dreamt of heading off in search of romantic and spiritual fulfilment on the other side of the globe.
This universal voice seems to have been lost in the film adaptation, though; it isn't easy to regard Julia Roberts - with her lustrous hair and megawatt smile - as an Everywoman, after all. Aesthetically the film delivers: there are panoramic shots of the Italian countryside and ocean vistas off the coast of Indonesia; the camera at one point lingers over a perfect plate of linguine; add to that, the cast - all of them - are impossibly good looking.
But the sentiment of the book is supposed to run far deeper than that; this is about finding yourself, not admiring the rugged good looks of Javier Bardem. The carefully stylised glossiness of the film detracts from the story's realistic grounding, so the message is drained of clout and the movie is left to flounder.
Gilbert may well have married the wrong man, but the reasons behind her decision to divorce him and to leave their large house and established domestic life are glossed over too quickly in the film. Her disenchantment isn't fully explained and as a result, her packing of bags and leaving comes off as self-indulgent and borderline callous. In reality, Gilbert no doubt agonised over this move, but here it is reduced to what feels like a whim. Similarly, there is no explanation of quite how she manages to fund this year-long sabbatical, another factor that gives this true story a fanciful edge.
Eat Pray Love unfolds largely in clichés and Gilbert's experiences of travelling solo are depicted in an idealised fashion. She never struggles, is rarely shown as uneasy or lonely and with each country she visits, a new network of friends await, ready to act as surrogate family and welcome her into their brood. The film is overrun with stereotypes, from the attributes of the countries visited, to the people met along the way. In the first leg of the journey, Gilbert spends time with a group of gesticulating Italians (complete with chiding grandmother), and in Bali we find her looking to a sanguine old medicine man for guidance.
As the film pushes past the two-hour mark, it is difficult to remain really interested in Gilbert's existential crisis. This feeling is compounded when you realise that this particular voyage, for all its talk of self-sufficiency, independence and "balance" ends on a speedboat with Gilbert in the arms of a doe-eyed Brazilian (Bardem).
As the credits roll, Gilbert has found herself, found her man and all the action has been smartly tied up in the year time frame. This may well be true, but it is dealt with in too schmaltzy a fashion to be truly affecting.
Watch the film for what it is: a superficial, mildly entertaining, romantic travelogue - with some truly delicious looking pizza - not a solution or insightful guide to individual happiness.