“Eat Pray Love” – My review

Ok, so I wasn’t really wanting to go into any sort of reviews on stuff, be it movies or books or whatever, as I’m really not that critical of anything. It’s true. I rarely if ever find a movie I hate or will admit to hating . . . . well, except dumb movies. However, considering what I am actually planning on doing in about 84 days(eeps!!!), reviewing a movie about someone that did something very similar seems rather poignant.

For those of you completely in the dark(or have massive amounts of testosterone coursing through your system), Eat Pray Love is a movie based on the book with the same name starring the always wonderful Julia Roberts. I’m sorry, but that lady is beautiful, I don’t care what people say. If I can look that good when I’m that old without plastic surgery I will count my lucky stars.

Now I will say a disclaimer: I have never read the book the movie is based off of, so I cannot give any sort of opinion on how well I feel the movie stayed true to the book or vice versa.

The basic gist of the story: A woman, in an unhappy marriage, leaves her husband, enters a brief affair with a much younger man but ends up leaving him too. In what seems like an epiphany moment, she decides to drop everything and spend a year traveling in Italy(eat), India(pray), and Bali(love).

The movie itself is really good at causing emotion, at least within me. In the Italy portion, when Roberts’ character basically says “Fuck you” to the notion of being angry at oneself for eating and indulges in all the delicacies that Italian cuisine has to offer, I was drooling. Seriously, bad movie to go to if you haven’t eaten yet. Total food porn, that’s what it was.  Pasta, you shall be the death of my diet. But I don’t care.

The middle portion, when Roberts character, Liz, is in India is by far the most emotionally draining part of the movie. The movie definitely slows down, but that’s to be expected considering she is spending her time in India at a . . . I’m not sure what to call it. It’s a convent for an Indian guru. For lack of a better description at least. Seeing her struggle here with the fact that, after so many months, she’s still not over her ex(both of them) and her reluctance to forgive herself really hit home to me. Those of you that know what I’ve gone through since July will understand. I really think they did an amazing job at building emotion here without being smultchy. Especially the intense scene with Texas. I won’t spoil it for anyone here, but I was in tears listening to the monologue.

Oh thank the good Lord when they moved to Bali! Here, humour came back once again. Beautiful country, and it was great to see Liz undergo such a massive inner transformation. Without giving too much away, Bali becomes the completion of a circle for Liz.

The movie ended a little too suddenly for my taste. I wanted more, I craved more of a conclusion. At least, more of one than we were given. Having not read the book, I’m not sure if there was more to it than what the movie gave us.

Reading other reviews, and comments from the general public on these review sites, it seems there is a lot of  . . . hatred for this movie, Julia Roberts, and the title character in general. Many rude comments on Julia Roberts being old(probably from people jealous that she looks so good) or her acting(which I think is superb. I love her laugh. LOVE IT!).

But what grates me the most is the comments from people who feel it to be so disgusting or irresponsible for this woman to take off and travel around the world. This is like an attack on my, and my decisions. Lots of comments talk of how “greedy” or “selfish” this woman must have been to want to just divorce her husband and take off galavanting around the world “to find herself.” Personally, again, I think this is just jealousy rearing its mighty head. I think it would’ve been worse for Liz to stay in a marriage she was not happy in at all. I think it shows great courage to leave all the comforts of home behind to do something so out of the ordinary and, yes, scary.

I think what this movie has done the most for me though, is given me the opportunity to develop a new understanding as to what this trip means to me now. This break up from the pseudo-quasi-not quite a relationship-relationship has been hard. Like Liz, I just want to “marvel at something extraordinary” again. To feel that thrill of just being alive. I want to forgive, myself and him. I want to love.

And I want to eat pasta. Lots and lots of pasta.

I feel like I have been rehashing this break up over and over again on here, and I must apologize for that. This is a travel blog after all. But take Eat Pray Love as an example. It is a travel book/movie. But underneath it all, it is a story of redemption. A story of rebirth. Liz’s trip is not just for the travel. She used it as a means of stripping herself to her bare minimum. By forcing oneself into strange and foreign circumstances, you force yourself to trust in yourself. And building that trust, as seen in the movie, causes you to come face to face with your flaws, with your hurt, with your emotions, and to deal with them.

Liz was able, through the course of her year around the world, to find who she wanted to be. To forgive who she was. And to open her heart to love again.

Maybe I will too.