Review of Eat Pray Love (2010) by Mike S — 28 Apr 2013

I found the final act of this memoir-based film to be a nice, well-acted romance of the traditional boy-meets-girl type. Julia Roberts and Javier Bardem displayed some good chemistry. The first two-thirds or so of the story were a bit pointless, though I did like the Richard character in India.

Basically, Roberts's character, Liz Gilbert, decides she must leave her unfulfilling marriage and "find herself" by travelling to Rome, India, and Bali to eat, pray, and love, respectively.

Being based on a lengthy, non-fiction memoir, the film seemed to skip over many details that would have made the premise more believable. The film offers no hint as to how Liz managed to afford this trip; I'm told she had an advance from a publisher on the understanding the trip would be the basis for a book.

Roberts did a good job bringing some emotional depth to what could be seen as a rather shallow and self-absorbed character, and the settings were gorgeous. Yes, it's a chick flick, but it could have been worse.