The reviews for “Eat, Pray, Love,” a major Hollywood production partly filmed in Indonesia, are in and they are not positive.
Of thirteen reviews compiled by rottentomatoes.com, nine labeled the film based on the bestselling book by Elizabeth Gilbert a stinker.
Writing in the USA Today, Claudia Puig notes that the "thin story" involves actress Julia Roberts searching for her soul “ad nauseam.”
Of thirteen reviews compiled by rottentomatoes.com, nine labeled the film based on the bestselling book by Elizabeth Gilbert a stinker.
Writing in the USA Today, Claudia Puig notes that the "thin story" involves actress Julia Roberts searching for her soul “ad nauseam.”
“A privileged woman ends her marriage for vague reasons and decides to get in touch with her true self. She ventures to Italy for the cuisine, goes to India to meditate and finds love in Indonesia. The whole quest feels a bit forced, though it’s an appealing travelogue,” Puig wrote, adding that the journey “feels like a rich girl gone slumming.”
She also noted that the film, which at 2 hours and 20 minutes, feels like a “slog.”
Film critic Emanual Levy, writing on his Web site, described the film as a “superficial, glitzy and fluffy travelogue of self-discovery, which mostly means eating and praying since none of the romances is commanding.”
He notes that the bestselling book of the same name fell into the hands of the wrong director, Ryan Murphy.
“Though assisted by a great cinematographer, Robert Richardson, most of the images are beautiful but don’t resonate emotionally because of Murphy’s shallow strategy,” Murphy said.
Kirk Honeycutt of the Hollywood Reporter writes: “A heavily idealized journey of self-discovery with a pretty woman (Julia Roberts), pretty scenery and a pretty shallow view of Eastern spirituality.”
He notes, however, that each of the three segments of the film, including the scenes filmed in Bali, are “thoroughly enjoyable in a touristic sort of way.”
He also adds that Bali could use this publicity "after those terrorist bombings."
Victoria Alexander of FilmsInReview.com writes: “Too preachy, indulgent, and everybody cries. Even the extras.”
“There were so many trite conversations about spirituality and balance and finding oneself, I cried too — of boredom,” Victoria said.
“Well, it’s time for Liz to take off for Bali and she goes to see her toothless guru, Nyomo (I. Gusti Ayu Puspawati), who started her on this journey a year ago with psychic predictions about her future. He predicted she would return and learn from him. In a glorious jungle villa, Liz settles in. Soon she meets Felipe (Javier Bardem) a successful import-exporter Brazilian suffering from an ugly divorce. He is wounded and I did not care.”
Christy Lemire, a movie critic with the Associated Press, however, said the film would satisfy fans of the book.
“‘Eat Pray Love’ does exactly what it should to satisfy its core audience: It provides a gorgeous escape, exquisitely photographed and full of female wish fulfillment. Yet it also offers sufficient emotional heft and self-discovery to make you feel as if you’ve actually learned something and, perhaps, emerged a better person solely through osmosis.”
She notes, however, that, “Beautiful as it is, the Bali section is overlong and it wraps up the film with the kind of romantic comedy cliches that, for the most part, were blissfully absent from the first two-thirds.”
The movie will be released in Asia in October.
