Eat Pray Love

The most puzzling thing about EAT PRAY LOVE is the fact that the "Eat" segment turns out to be the most complex, well-developed, emotionally affecting part of the movie. The "Pray" segment is shockingly unfocused and superficial, while the "Love" segment is rushed and haphazard. This is the type of film in which the thematic depth should've actually escalated as it moved from one stage of its protagonist's journey to the next, but alas, the exact opposite happens.

Liz (Julia Roberts) feels like she hasn't dedicated enough time to make herself happy and that she got married too soon. So, she divorces her current husband and starts a fling with the much-younger David (James Franco) to see if maybe he'll infuse some life into her and get her out of the doldrums. Though she's still conflicted about possible feelings for David, she decides she'll have to do something much more drastic to achieve an emotional turnaround, so she decides to go on a trip to Italy, then India and finally Bali. The three verbs in the film's title are appropriate because they represent the way that Liz tries to get in touch with her inner self: in Italy, she savors some incredible food in and sees beautiful places; in India, she secludes herself in a religious haven and tries to get her spirituality moving forward; in Bali, she meets Felipe (Javier Bardem), who seems to be just as emotionally dissatisfied as her, and (as you'll have predicted by now) love supposedly ensues.

The Italy segment of EAT PRAY LOVE is a wonder to look at. It may not be anything great in the dramatic scale, but the characters that Liz gets to meet are a joy to get to know, and she even visits a few places that aren't commonly showcased in other films shot in Italy. Things get incredibly worse once we move to India, though. The 2008 Best Picture Oscar winner SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE was a true love letter to that country, which certainly can't be said of this movie; there's no intention whatsoever to highlight the Indian landscape. I understand that Italy is more conventionally beautiful than India, but there's no reason for the film to start constricting its display of scenery so much when it switches countries. But worst of all, the attempt at portraying Liz's supposed connection with a "higher being" is flimsy at best. It doesn't get much better once we finally get to Bali. The "Meet Cute" between Liz and Felipe is ultra-contrived and their relationship is hardly developed. We simply "accept" that they're in love because the film TELLS us that they are, but we don't believe it. When one sees the final kiss between the lovebirds right before credits roll, one usually knows whether it was earned or not. In this case, it definitely isn't. In the grand scheme of the film's approach, it almost would've made more sense for Liz to fly back to New York at the end and jump into David's arms, seeing as her romance with him at the beginning was far more well-developed. Oh, and let's not even talk about the fact that, even though Liz's last location (Bali) is in Indonesia, the guy she meets and falls in love with is actually Brazilian rather than an Indonesian local. The movie chooses to go for the stereotype of the white woman who falls in love with a Latin American, bohemian guy, rather than take risks. If Liz had met and fallen in love with say, a Muslim living in Indonesia, I may have given the film more credit... but this is certainly not the type of movie that'll go out of its way to miff mainstream audiences and surprise those of us who prefer something different.

5/10