The book Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert caused a sensation, enjoying a long period on the New York Times bestseller list. A film was put into production starring Julia Roberts. The authorities weren’t impressed. Authorities also took Sex and the City 2, the previous sort-of-feminist travel film this year, out back and beat the film like a red headed stepchild.
Another exhilarating tale of self discovery
The book details how Elizabeth Gilbert divorced her husband to go travelling and get in touch with her spiritual side. She luckily had quite the patron in her publisher, who gave her a huge check to finance the project. The film stars Julia Roberts, James Franco, Billy Crudup, and Javier Bardem, and it was directed by Ryan Murphy.
Not numerous high marks in Eat Pray Love movie review scores
The day of release, Rotten Tomatoes had the film at around 36 percent. Beth Accomando, writing in PRI’s The World, said the film was “more like eat, pray for it to be over, gag.” Adam Graham, of the Detroit News, deemed it “an crazy fantasy for rich individuals.” The Chicago Sun Times and famed critic Roger Ebert was not amused. He said that to truly understand the film, “I guess you have to belong to the narcissistic subculture of Woo-Woo.” In the Christian Science Monitor, Andy Klein writes that as Robert’s character learns meditation, it “involves emptying her mind – which shouldn’t take much heavy lifting.”
Very critical critics
The negative reviews all have a comparable theme, so seems like it isn’t just a case of critics being mean for the joy of doing so. Nevertheless, the book sold lots of copies for a reason. It has a positive message, about getting in touch with one’s spiritual side. That said, that doesn’t appeal to everyone. Sometimes, themes and literary devices work better on the page than on the screen. What inspires and uplifts some bores other people to the point that they’d rather beat their head against the wall. A book or film like Eat, Pray, Love can try so hard to uplift that it becomes trite and a self parody.
Discover more info on this topic
Rotten Tomatoes
rottentomatoes.com/m/eat_pray_love/
Roger Bert
rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100811/REVIEWS/100819999
SC Monitor
csmonitor.com/The-Culture/Movies/2010/0813/Eat-Pray-Love-movie-review
