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Is it worth $10? No
Julia Roberts has a winning smile. Anyone who has seen her in "Pretty Woman" and "My Best Friend’s Wedding" knows this. She knows this too, and she also knows that she can turn it off for dramatic effect. Sometimes this works ("Erin Brockovich") and sometimes it doesn’t ("Mary Reilly").
When we first meet Roberts’ Liz Gilbert in "Eat Pray Love," she’s smiling. Liz is a travel writer on assignment in Bali, and she’s getting her palm read by a medicine man. He tells her that in six to ten months, she will lose everything, but then get it back. He also says that she will come back to visit him and teach him English, and he’ll teach her everything he knows.
Flash forward to six months later. Liz is back in New York in the apartment of Delia Shiraz (Viola Davis), the publisher of Liz’s new book. In spite of the fact that the party is a celebration of her work, and that it’s being held in the kind of upper class New York space that Woody Allen used to cherish, she is not smiling. None of her success has brought her happiness. On top of that, she is unhappy in her marriage to Stephen (Billy Crudup), whom she feels does not communicate.
So, she leaves Stephen and moves in with David (James Franco), an aspiring actor. They have a whirlwind romance that gets Liz smiling again, but it’s not to last. Doubts and unhappiness soon creep in, and not only does she stop smiling, she lays on the floor and sobs. It’s somewhere around here that she decides that the answer to her midlife crisis is to take a year off and go to Italy, India, and Bali.
While it’s great for Liz to do some soul searching and for us to be treated to the culture and scenery of these countries, it’s also the end of her as the most compelling character in the story. In each of the places she goes, she meets strangers who show her around and tell their own stories. Liz becomes a cipher. Her journey of self-discovery is overshadowed by supporting players who are far more interesting than she is.
In Italy there’s Andrea (Welker White), a Swedish native who joins Liz in her quest to binge eat. In India she meets Richard from Texas (Richard Jenkins), who guides her with her meditation. In Bali she meets Felipe (Javier Bardem), a broken-hearted divorcee like herself. In addition, she befriends native citizens of all of these places, and in her own way helps them as much as they help her.
Richard is particularly interesting. In spite of giving Liz the awkward nickname “Groceries,” he gives the film a jolt in every scene he’s in. Jenkins plays him in a way where he first comes across as a cocky know it all, but as the layers get peeled away, he shows a deeper, more sensitive side. Richard tells a personal story to Liz toward the end of her time there, and the sheer conviction and raw emotion from Jenkins is astounding. He’s an actor who knows how express himself and make the audience feel it too. That character should get his own movie.
And that’s the big flaw of "Eat Pray Love." Liz’s story is constantly being upstaged by the stories of the other people she meets. While she’s concerning herself with fitting into her jeans and meditating, they’re living their lives and are having experiences that make her troubles pale in comparison. Julia Roberts is a great actress, and she has some good dramatic moments, but they’re not enough to make up for the relative flatness of her character. Not even if she smiled more.
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Jill
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... I disagree. It should get at least 3 stars. The movie was touching and most compelling. Though there were moments that it could have focused more on her, overall I felt that her surroundings were just as important to deliver her message. It showed that one should focus on themselves but being aware of others and caring along the way. Since this is what got her happiness in the end and her long standing second marriage.  |
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