After reading Elizabeth Gilbert's book, I was intrigued to see how Hollywood would make this heartfelt, sincere novel come to life. Could they do it justice? How well will Julia Roberts portray Elizabeth Gilbert? I had my doubts, believe me I did. How could you take a book full of such honesty, pain and adventure and turn it into a Hollywood blockbuster without damaging it?
In the beginning of the film that we learn about Liz's background and her failing marriage; we follow her difficult divorce, feel the pain of her husbands unrequited love, bare a small ounce of her guilt at leaving her husband and we take a dive into her new love affair with a younger man. If I hadn't of read the book, I wouldn't have known the real hardships of Liz's divorce, I wouldn't have known the true anguish she felt and I wouldn't have known how long she had been unhappy. The film touches on these issues, but it's more of a skimming than the true immersion it should be.
This movie although lacking the true depth of the book, is a great accompaniment. Julia Roberts is brilliant as Liz, and she really does her best with the script she's been given. The only part of the movie I started to get slightly fidgety in was India, which was rather fitting as it's the part of the book I found quite Laborious; life in the Ashram however, isn't mean to be easy it's meant to be tough, so maybe my inability to sit still was my way of feeling emphatic towards Elizabeth's struggle to find stillness. Do not worry, you are thoroughly rewarded after sitting through India, by the lightness of Bali, the Indonesian part of the Movie. Not only do you find yourself immediately relaxing, you also get to enjoying a very romantic meeting of two kindred spirits whom nurse each others broken hearts back to health.
Please read the book first, as it will really make this movie a completely different experience. Not only will you be able to truly enjoy the film, you won't find yourself having to put all the missing pieces together. Although some characters were missing, and details missed out of the movie which I would have enjoyed to see, the movies settings were truly beautiful and the opening credits do read "Based On" not "Exactly the same as" so you are warned.
All in all Eat Pray Love is a really lovely film, and it's really worth going to see, especially if you'd like to escape the recent rain and head off to Italy, India and Indonesia with Javier Bardem, Billy Crudup and James Franco for a couple of hours.
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