Released four months ago, the same day as The Expendables, EPL is the film adaptation
of Elizabeth Gilbert's 2006 best seller starring Julia Roberts - who just happens to be the
sister of our last film's villain.
Attempting to play a character 11-years her junior, Roberts portrays Elizabeth Gilbert
in the lead role, and also serving as the narrator for much of the film - as she takes
the audience on a journey through a year of her life, after a messy divorce where she
tries to find herself, and discover what she wants to do with her life.
Billed as a romantic comedy, EPL is most certainly neither, which besides it's length run-time
of 133 minutes, is just the first of it's many problems.
Julia Roberts is, as always, delightful on screen, but does very little to convince anyone
that we're not watching Julia Roberts the actress...
instead of the character she is attempting to portray.
This film starts off terribly slow, taking nearly 30 minutes to reach the first development
in the plot, and even then, almost nothing of significance happens for the entire middle
hour of the film.
Normally, a bloated, slow-moving movie is great for character development... but throughout
the film, all we learn is that Gilbert is impatient, afraid of commitment, and quite
fond of food.
The one saving grace however is the large, and engrossing supporting cast that Gilbert
meets along the way as she travels the globe looking for answers in her life.
And while the stories, relationships, and acting that results from these supporting
characters is all superb... we unfortunately don't get to see much of them, because just
as soon as we start to understand and connect with a character, the movie transitions to
it's next location, and we never get to see them again.
Eat Pray Love is not a terrible movie, but it takes far too long to get to the real meat
of the story, with Robert's main love interest not arriving until the final 30 minutes of
the movie.
Even typical romantic comedy fans here won't find much to enjoy, as the film's serious
themes and tone won't have many people laughing.
Eat Pray Love?
More like, "A boring mid-life crisis".
Well, that's what I thought about EPL, now see what you had to say in the YouTube comments,
Now, lets rate this movie to see how we scored it.
A "Meh", and a "Bad".
I was not impressed with this film, but it was a film that although slow to get there,
did eventually have a satisfying conclusion, I scored it a four.
You were a touch harsher on the film, expressing disinterest in the subject matter, and lengthy
run time, scoring it a three.