{"id":9659,"date":"2010-08-28T13:12:20","date_gmt":"2010-08-28T21:12:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/?p=9659"},"modified":"2010-09-23T09:27:22","modified_gmt":"2010-09-23T17:27:22","slug":"eat-pray-love-ryan-murphy-2010-usa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/?p=9659","title":{"rendered":"Eat Pray Love (Ryan Murphy, 2010): USA"},"content":{"rendered":"

Reviewed by Kathleen Amboy<\/a>.\u00a0 Viewed at Paseo Nuevo, Santa Barbara, CA.<\/p>\n

\"\" Suffering first a nasty divorce from husband Stephen (Billy Crudup)\u00a0and then a\u00a0painful breakup with\u00a0her lover David (James Franco), Liz Gilbert (Julia Roberts)\u00a0is miserable and searching for\u00a0a deeper meaning to life.\u00a0 She\u00a0sets out on a quest to let herself go, be at one with God, and find herself in Eat Pray Love<\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n

Gilbert’s first stop is Rome where she befriends Sofi (Tuva Novotny), a traveler from Sweden, who\u00a0introduces Liz to a language instructor named Giovanni (Luca Argentero).\u00a0 As they hang out together, eating their way across Rome, Liz learns the meaning of ‘familia’.<\/p>\n

Liz’s next stop is India, for cleansing of\u00a0her mind and spirit\u00a0through meditation.\u00a0 She is befriended by another American named Richard (Richard Jenkins), who teaches her to accept, let go and forgive (mainly herself).\u00a0 Liz also learns an important\u00a0lesson in selflessness from a local Indian girl.<\/p>\n

Her sojourn ends in Bali where she pursues ancient truths from elderly guru Ketut Liyer (Hadi Subiyanto).\u00a0 Gilbert crosses paths with a charming Brazilian named\u00a0Felipe (Javier Bardem) and they find themselves in a whirlwind romance.<\/p>\n

Based on the memoirs of writer Elizabeth Gilbert, Eat Pray Love is yet another woman’s inner-discovery picture,\u00a0not unlike Julie and Julia,<\/em> that includes close ups of mouth-watering meals.\u00a0 It’s the unsettled, teary-eyed female character that does something wild and extravagant which attracts many female fans.<\/p>\n

Julia Roberts’ portrayal of Gilbert seems dowdy and washed out, even at the point\u00a0when her life turns around for the better after meeting Felipe –\u00a0\u00a0the toothy grin and auburn locks that once attracted many viewers in Pretty Woman<\/em>, while still attempted, just aren’t there.\u00a0 Gilbert’s persona\u00a0seems weak and\u00a0fragile, appearing too dependent on the constant attentions of a male, any male; where’s\u00a0Ellen Ripley when you need her?<\/p>\n

The film is not without merit, as it was entertaining and humorous at times.\u00a0 Javier Bardem does not disappoint in his minor role as Felipe, but it makes one wish for more interactions with his character than all the others combined.\u00a0 To see Julia at her best check out Erin Brockovich<\/em> or Charlie Wilson’s War<\/em>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Reviewed by Kathleen Amboy.\u00a0 Viewed at Paseo Nuevo, Santa Barbara, CA. Suffering first a nasty divorce from husband Stephen (Billy Crudup)\u00a0and then a\u00a0painful breakup with\u00a0her lover David (James Franco), Liz Gilbert (Julia Roberts)\u00a0is miserable and searching for\u00a0a deeper meaning to life.\u00a0 She\u00a0sets out on a quest to let herself go, be at one with God, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":49,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9659","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-films"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9659","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/49"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9659"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9659\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9659"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9659"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9659"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}