Friday, August 13, 2010

"Eat Pray Love" movie, Julia Robert



Top critics new Julia Robert Eat Pray Love movie mixed reviews. Columbia pictures released their new Julia Roberts branded comedy/drama flick "Eat Pray Love" into theaters today, and the top critics gave it some pretty mixed reviews with a couple Bs, Cs and Ds.

The movie starts : Julia Robert, James Franco, Javier Bardem, Viola Davis, Billy Crudup and Richard Jenkins.


Roger Ebert at the Chicago Sun-Times gave it a C. He stated, "shameless wish fulfillment, a Harlequin novel crossed with a mystic travelogue"


James Berardinelli at Reelviews gave it a D + rating "Eat Pray Love" movie is in theaters.


Even with all that lush scenery and those though-provoking lessons, the film (directed by Ryan Murphy and based on Elizabeth Gilbert's best selling memoir and book-cirrcle staple) is tripped up by its own habit of lingering too long...on individual scenes, on individual points, on Roberts' character's seemingly limitless well of self-pity, and on delivering its final message "I don't know how to be here," Roberts'Liz whines to Franco.



Liz goes to Italy, then India, then Bali (Indonesia), in each locale learning personal lessons relating to one of the three title verbs. In Rome, she befriends a nice Swedish girl (Tuva Novotny) and a handsome young Italian tutor (Luca Argentero), learning the language while eating a lot of pasta. Her epiphany is to not care so much about wheather she gains a few pounds, but to simply enjoy the food.



It's there that, after its plodding and self-aggranding start, Murphy's film finally loosens up and shows signs of life. Lessons learned and new friends made, when she next to India ("Pray"), where she works to find her spiritual balance and fugure out how to forgive herself for hurting the people she loved. Again, the loving visuals impart great color to the whole affair, but the real treat is Richard Jenkis, as a brash and wise Texan on his search for redemption.

Although some are more profound than others, there are a lot of worthwhile life lessons in Murphy's movie.

No comments: