REVIEW: Eat Pray Love

INSTANT KARMA

Julia Roberts' Liz Gilbert travels all the way from New York to Bali to find Javier Bardem. Who wouldn't? After all, a woman's quest for purpose can only end with a man, isn't it? That she's as good-looking as Ms. Roberts, even in her '40s, helps. The cause of her existential angst or mid-life crisis can only be described as 'ennui of the affluent'. She's a travel writer who's seen half the world. She's living a comfortable life in NY with a husband (Billy Crudup) who appears no worse than any other. Maybe she doesn't think he's meant for her.

Before which, there's been a prediction by a toothless Balinese soothsayer that she'll have two marriages, one long, the other short. She dumps Crudup then, with the platitude, "The only thing more impossible than staying, was leaving." Of course Eat Pray Love is adapted from a best-selling self-help book by Elizabeth Gilbert. But did it need to be littered with so many pat truisms? 

From her newly divorced state, she hitches right up with a much younger theatre actor (James Franco -- why anyone would leave him to seek, even Javier Bardem, one doesn't know), who's into Indian spirituality, follows a guru and meditates and chants for peace. So there. Already, that avenue was open to her right there in NY. But Liz doesn't even know what she wants, so she sets off to find herself in various places. The first stop is Italy, where she gorges on delicious Italian spaghetti and pizzas ("I'm having a relationship with a pizza"), learns Italian from another gorgeous man (damn!), befriends a bunch of happy people and spends four months in gluttonous bliss (without putting on any perceptible weight, mind you). Except, she still looks like a nervous wreck and cries at the slightest provocation.

On to the same guru's ashram in India then. First, there's the typical India imagery seen through western eyes -- cows and elephants, people bathing in the open, poverty, squalour and a constant cacophony in the ambience. She meets fellow American, Richard (Richard Jenkins, who chews up the film in just one scene) her proxy guru (the woman she's actually come for is, quite ironically, at her ashram in New York). There's silence, seva, chanting, and still some more restlessness punctuated by a fairly modest Indian wedding.

You're supposed to believe that somewhere between Italy and India, and India and Bali, there's been a transformation in this woman. But that's not borne out by her actions and demeanour. Sure, she looks more relaxed in Bali. But in terms of 'finding' herself, she still seems far from the goal, given that she hasn't stopped leaning on other people's wisdom to direct her life -- from the same soothsayer to a divorced medicine woman and then of course, the Bardem character. 

Since she's on a quest to find her balance and the film has a 'feel-good' karma, nothing unpleasant ever happens to her. She doesn't get robbed in Italy, or catch a stomach bug in India or get hit on by a beach party reveller in Bali. Everywhere she goes, she only meets wonderful friends who teach her about life, and the world is a beautiful, harmonious place, bereft of all evil. 

Buried somewhere under the superficiality and the pat resolution is the idea or moving away from the material world to a more human, spiritual core. Of being detached from the stresses of modern life, and trying to connect with people, places and yourself in a more meaningful way.

Sadly, Ryan Murphy's film is just as hollow as the life from which Liz is trying to escape.

Comments

[Deepa Gahlot]

Everyone seems to think the book was better--maybe Ms Gilbert is a better writer than Ryan Murphy is a director...

[Mandar]

I wouldnt have better words to write this review, hats off! Kudos!