The film adaptation of Elizabeth Gilbert’s memoir “Eat Pray Love” proved to be a decent Julia Roberts chick flick, but it was obvious, even to those who hadn’t read the book prior, that the film failed to portray the depth of the original story.
Gilbert (Roberts), a seemingly average and happily married woman, suddenly realizes her life isn’t what she wants it to be and drops everything, including her family and friends back home, to travel the world in search of her true self.
Although the storyline of “a quest for self discovery” has been done time and time again, the way the author portrays the lessons learned in this story shines through, even if this very, very long movie falls a bit short of the novel’s expectations.
With each place Gilbert (Roberts) travels, she meets new people who each have their own stories to tell and learns through their experiences a deeper piece of herself, becoming stronger along the way.
In Italy, she lets go of worrying about her self-image and embarks on a “no carb left behind” eating spree, learning from the locals “the sweetness of doing nothing.”
While in India, she realizes the power of prayer, the freedom of forgiveness and that, sometimes, the hardest person to forgive is yourself.
Finally, she ends up in Bali, learning from her lovable mentor Ketut about “the balance of life” and inner peace when she finds what she’s been looking for all along: true love and happiness.
The film tends to lose the viewers’ attention more than a few times. It has its fair share of tacky scenes where what readers imagined while reading wasn’t what was portrayed on the big screen.
But, there are those moving moments where Gilbert says something that makes you want to rewind and listen to it again.
When Gilbert learns that “ruin is a gift, ruin is the road to transformation” and that “God dwells inside you, as you” it makes you stop and think about your own life and how the lessons this main character is learning can also apply to you.
The movie has the capability to put you to sleep here and there. Your best bet is to go out, buy the book and read more into the points of the story that the movie failed to give its full potential.
3 stars out of 5