MOVIE REVIEW: EAT LOVE PRAY

EAT LOVE PRAY

Four of Seven Cows

Wow, I am so not a woman. That’s what I was thinking after twenty minutes of Eat Pray Love had me wishing I could skewer my eyeballs like cocktail olives. I mean, I knew I was in for a chick-flick, but who would have thought watching Julia Roberts could be so mind-bendingly boring?

            

 So there I am, entertaining myself by imagining all the clever, snarky things I was going to write about this movie (I especially liked the ‘cocktail olives’ line), when a funny thing happened: It got kind of good. It took two-thirds of a movie for this to happen, mind you, but it did finally happen.

            

 Eat Pray Love is based on a book by Elizabeth Gilbert that I’m sure is required reading for men enjoying a nice, toasty afterlife. The eating, loving, praying thing refers to the three phases of healing that Robert’s character, Liz Gilbert, must pass through while healing from a painful divorce. I suspect there was a bit more depth to the printed version, but I’ll never know for sure: Not in this life, anyhow.

             

The eating takes place in Rome, the praying in India, and the loving in Bali; good locales all, and each is beautifully shot. In fact, the cinematography is truly excellent, whether aimed at the Coliseum or at the eternally-lovely Ms. Roberts. I say ‘eternally’ because Julia Roberts has not aged an iota since I first saw her in Pretty Woman. Seriously, she simply cannot be human.

             

As odd as it might seem, it was in the “Love” portion of the movie that I actually began to like Eat Pray Love. I know I risk losing my man card for admitting to this, but the last third of the movie is truly sweet. The credit for this goes to Javier Bardem in his role as the love interest, Felipe. Blessed with the sad, hang-dog sort of face that makes viewers, myself included, sympathetic, Bardem subtly steals the movie. That’s a good thing: It needed stealing.

            

Eat Pray Love will bore the socks off a kid, but if you insist on bringing one there’s very little to find offensive. Language is mild and there’s no sex to speak of, which is one of many reasons it will bore the socks off your husband, too. Still, there are worse ways to spend a couple of hours than watching Julia Roberts being Julia Roberts, which makes me very glad to have skipped the eyeball skewering thing. I give Eat Pray Love four sleepy cows.