The popularity of Elizabeth Gilbert's 2006 memoir "Eat Pray Love'' is just beyond reason. A well-to-do woman takes off on an around-the-world journey, exploring "the art of pleasure in Italy, the art of devotion in India, and in Indonesia, the art of balancing the two", as she states in her bestseller. However, the author loaded all her coming-from-no-where psychological struggle and non-stop grief into the book so shamelessly that it's a mystery how it became an instant hit worldwide.
Now Hollywood has given the novel an incarnation and pins its box office hope on the charismatic actress Juliet Roberts. Nevertheless, it is still a thin story on screen.
Directed by Ryan Murphy, the movie "Eat Pray Love" adheres to the original memoir. While trying to get pregnant, a happily married woman realizes her life needs to go in a different direction. After a painful divorce, she begins her global trudge.
Then we see the lead actress ride on elephants in tropical jungles, meditate whole-heartedly, eat a lot of pasta, and cry again and again. But why did she cry at all? It's a sure thing that she has money otherwise she couldn' t have spent a whole year traveling. It might be just a case of the seven year itch but why does she have to exaggerate the pain? Such a romantic story associated with traveling always caters to most of the female viewers but it's not the typical travel chick flick you would expect. Filled up with unreasonable sentiments of dismay, the whole journey feels like a slog with a Lonely Planet written by Euripides.
I would like to express my condolences to you if you have ever met anyone as needy and clingy as the lead role in the movie. The character is the last person you would ever want to befriend in real life. Even though the heart breaker Juliet Roberts works at the height of her charm and delivers top-notched acting, the role is no more than a bore.
The movie could instill pessimistic emotion in any viewer with a normal psyche. "Eat", "pray" and "love" are all the most beautiful things to do in life but the movie cruelly ruined them all. For those who are suffering slight depression, please take my advice: keep the movie at a distance unless you wish to develop your unhappiness into a depressive disorder.
On my one to ten movie scale, I give "Eat Pray Love" a FOUR.
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