"With scenery as fine as Hollywood money can buy, how can anything go wrong?"
"Eat Pray Love" is a sumptuous sight. After introducing us to heroine Liz
Gilbert (Julia Roberts), the movie takes us on a travel tour of Italy, India,
and Indonesia - the three countries Liz chooses to visit on her journey of
post-divorce self-discovery. With Julia Roberts as tour guide through scenery as
fine as Hollywood money can buy, how can anything go wrong? It does, though only
mildly. With Roberts on board, we expect the movie to be really good; instead
it's just slightly on the upside of mediocre - a sort of glitzy fizzle.
As Liz leaves
her feckless young husband (Billy Crudup) and then dabbles with a younger man
(James Franco) at the start of her journey, we wonder why she seems so beyond
the reach of these callow youths. It's not that Julia Roberts' Liz looks older;
it's that she seems deeper, and we are relieved when she moves on to the
emotional weight of a troubled Texan in India (Richard Jenkins), and finally to
the devilishly charming Brazilian (Javier Bardem) in Indonesia.
It doesn't
take long to realize that though Liz may be searching for her new self, she's
not going to do it alone. Sociable to her bones, she falls in - on arrival at
wherever - with magical groups of people who love her on sight. Italians over
spaghetti, chanting Indians, the shaman and the healer in Bali - all take her in
as if her arrival is their cue to share their emotional well-being. This movie
and its heroine travel along about two feet off the ground leaving us to
navigate the nuggets of reality it has strewn below.
Our traveler
appears vulnerable in the limbo between independence and the loneliness it so
often brings. Does partnership always mean compromise or surrender? While Liz is
struggling through this maze, one thing becomes clear: this warm extrovert isn't
suited to a solitary life.
Good casting
keeps things rolling. Friend Viola Davis as Liz's pal in New York, Tuva Novotny
as her new pal in Italy, Giuseppe Gandini's ebullient Italian, Hadi Subiyanto's
shaman. All of them propel the movie toward a solution to Liz's identity
problem. Can independence for a pretty gal from New York survive partnership
with a handsome man of the right emotional weight from Brazil? Reservations
aside, Roberts and Bardem are an irresistible pair. We root for them.
By sheer
force of her own authenticity, Julia Roberts manages to make up for some of the
pop psychology that comes our way. It is my humble opinion that for those of us
who have not experienced the ashram, the shaman or the healer, these things,
when painted vividly on the big screen, seem awash in pop therapy. The audience
can be forgiven for moments of eye-rolling. As a trusted friend once said, "In
the movies, a toothless old man in a drooping loincloth can be counted on to
dispense wisdom." Just so.
Copyright (c) Illusion