Columbia Pictures, Plan B Entertainment
Julia Roberts, Billy Crudup, James Franco, I Gusti Ayu Puspawati, Hadi Subiyanto, Viola Davis
This is a major chick flick. In fact, this may be the chick-flickiest movie I have ever seen. It made me feel like I was watching a marathon of Bridges of Madison County it was that painful. This is the story of a woman who doesn’t know who she is and is trapped in a marriage she doesn’t want. So she does what everybody does, takes a journey around the world. This is a writer who never writes, so I truly don’t know where the money for this journey comes from, but around the world she goes.
This is a long film, well over two hours, and it was painful to sit through the first part, for me. I found myself halfway through this wishing something interesting would happen. Then suddenly just before the end, I think I finally got it.
The words in the title Eat, Pray, and Love have to do with the 3 countries this lady visits. It becomes obvious. For a dense guy like me, it took a long time till I caught on to the point of the story. We are all sometimes looking for the wrong thing. We look for peace, we look for love, we look for fame, we look for wealth. But what we all are really looking for is balance.
There are other thoughtful things in this movie too. During her journey she meets some pretty crazy people. That’s part of the fun, and there are a few funny parts. But this movie never got to a chemistry level like the other Julia Roberts movies, like Notting Hill for example. It’s really hard to get into any of the characters in this movie.
So basically, if you’re into chick flicks, or if you read the memoirs of the writer of the novel this movie was made from and are interested to see the places in the story, (the cinematography is beautiful), then this will be a big hit for you. But if you’re a macho guy, and your wife/girlfriend wants to drag you here, and you can’t talk her into a “girls night out”, make sure you make an especially great deal because guys are mostly not going to dig this.
I have to give this a rating in the middle, mostly because I know the number of women that are going to love it are going to be canceled out by the men who are going to hate it. But I wish I could have talked my lady into seeing something different.