Eat Pray Love

Dir: Ryan Murphy (Running with Scissors)
Cast: Julia Roberts, James Franco, Javier Bardem, Billy Crudup, Richard Jenkins, Viola Davis,I. Gusti Ayu Puspawati, Hadi Subiyanto
USA, 2010

Seen: August 13, 2010

Reason to see: Loved the book

Based on the memoir Eat Pray Love of Elizabeth Gilbert (which I just recently finished as a part of my 2010 Book to Film Challenge), the book and film is centred on her 1 year journey to search for herself as she travels through Italy, India and Indonesia to you guessed it, Eats, Prays and Loves. I headed out the see the film on opening day with my sister Jamie, whom also lent me the book to read, and we both loved it. The film stars Julia Roberts as Liz and I have to say it’s an amazing adaptation. Although there are some changes here and there but truly kept the spirit of the book close to heart and in doing so the sensitivity to the spirit of the story were always maintained.

I’ll admit to going in a little bit skepical from the perspective of I hoped they didn’t Hollywood-it-up, and they really didn’t except for the fact that it looks beautiful with sweeping shots highlighting the beauty of the locations and has a great A-list cast with Julie Roberts, Javier Bardem and James Franco – and those are all good things. But they didn’t change the story from being the personal journey that it was for Liz, a journey for her to find herself, and one that began at such a hard point in her life where she literally had nothing to hold on to.

I’d highly recommend both the book and the film, it’s a beautiful and brave journey. It isn’t easy to put yourself out there, to risk it all without knowing what will happen and facing all the judgment that people place on doing something (shock!) for yourself. I'm amazing at the reactions to the film that are laced with judgment and "Oh, wouldn't it be nice if we could all do that?". You know what? You can. You think it was easy for her? No, it wasn't. But she did it. And you can too. You can’t be yourself unless you know yourself, so why not be inspired by the brave step that Liz took to find herself and share that journey? It's not as easy as pointing fingers, but I guarantee you it's much more rewarding. I hope more people continue to be inspired by her and her experience by reading the book and now by seeing the film.

Shannon's Overall View:
I loved it
I'll buy it
I highly recommend

15 minutes of preshow including 6 commercials and 5 previews: Love & Other Drugs, The American, Life As We Know It, The Social Network and How Do You Know

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© Shannon Ridler, 2010