Eat Pray Love stars Julia Roberts as Liz Gilbert, a woman in an unhappy marriage who is still trying to discover herself. Deciding she wants to take her life in another direction she struggles through a painful divorce and enters into a fling with a younger man trying to make this relationship work as well. Learning that she needs to find herself before trying to make a relationship work she embarks on a journey around the world that will begin in Italy and end in Bali a year later.
Liz Gilbert is a mess in everything she does. Jumping in and out of relationships and always trying to make it the right fit. It is obvious that she needs to discover herself and love herself, but she is still learning to do that. Realizing that she needs to take time for her she leaves New York where she resides as a prominent writer to begin her year long of tr
aveling starting in Italy.
In Rome she makes an American friend who introduces her to a tutor who teaches her the Italian language and much about the history of the beautiful city. In this breathtaking city she makes several friends and her journey comes to an end on Thanksgiving. Next stop is India. Upon her arrival she must meditate and pray. She finds this a challenge at first as she can not open her mind. Liz closes off once again to the possibility of the power of prayer. In India she makes friends with Richard (Richard Jenkins) who is from Texas and has lost his family and has come her to find himself. He helps heal Liz and teach her the lesson of focus and forgiveness.
Following her meditation she leaves for Bali to visit medicine man Ketut (Hadi Subiyanto). He helps her in her final balancing act and trying to find her center. Eventually Ketut leads Liz to love and changes her life. Eat Pray Love is an inspirational tale about finding yourself to accept love. It had a meaningful purpose but this film has a run time that would drain anyone. The dialogue is lacking and I found myself consistently wandering away in other thoughts. The film failed to ever capture my attention. The director and writers should almost be ashamed by the lack of entertainment this film offered. It was dull and boring and there is not much to be desired from the main character. All supporting characters were underdeveloped and no relationships had any stamina. Eat Pray Love is a long marathon full of self pity and poor interaction. If you can survive the eating you might make it through to the love, but I would advise against it.
