Eat Pray Love Movie Where To Watch

[Charlesetta Blare]

Adaptedfrom the best-selling memoir by Elizabeth Gilbert, stars Julia Roberts as a newly-divorced woman embarking on a journey... More Adapted from the best-selling memoir by Elizabeth Gilbert, stars Julia Roberts as a newly-divorced woman embarking on a journey of self-discovery. Also stars James Franco and Javier Bardem.

Liz Gilbert (Roberts) had everything a woman is supposed to want - a husband, a house, a successful career - but it just 'aint enough. Newly divorced and at a crossroads, Gilbert steps out of her comfort zone and embarks on a journey around the world that becomes a quest for self-discovery. In her travels, she discovers the true pleasures of food in Italy; the power of prayer in India, and, finally and unexpectedly, the inner peace and balance of true love in Bali.

Send your thoughts to Letters to the Editor. Learn moreAugust 20, 2010Share on FacebookShare on TwitterEmail to a friendPrint

Julia Roberts and Javier Bardem in Eat Pray LoveLet's face it. There are some books that should never be made into movies.

I wanted to like the film, but got an inkling it might not live up to my expectations when I saw Julia Roberts, who plays Liz in the film, ride a bicycle along a tropical byway with what looks like a pasted-on smile. It didn't ring true and in my heart of hearts, I knew that the film might look good, but would miss the depth of Liz's one-year search for meaning.

I usually love it when I am right (I cheer after every Jeopardy answer I get right, much to the dismay of my community). Alas, I am just disappointed at being right about this movie. The film is OK, but never was able to convey the experience of grace that the book did so well.

The writers left out two key aspects of the book that might have made up for the emotional deficiencies of the first act: the fact that Liz claimed to know every gelato place in Rome and her sister's visit while there.

In the book Liz compares her sister Catherine's world view with her own developing spiritual perspective: "A family in my sister's neighborhood was recently stricken with a double tragedy, when both a young mother and her three-year old son were diagnosed with cancer. When Catherine told me about this, I could only say, shocked, 'Dear God, that family needs grace.' She replied firmly, 'That family needs casseroles,' and then proceeded to organize the entire neighborhood into bringing that family dinner, in shifts, every single night, for an entire year. I do not know if my sister realizes that this is grace."

Some have criticized Liz's character in the film for going along with the arranged marriage of one of the women she meets in the ashram in India. Critics think Liz should have helped the girl resist but didn't. I don't recall this episode from the book, and actually found this side-story distracting. Besides, do critics think Liz was on a crusade during this year? She barely had her own life together let alone the ability to take on centuries of tradition.

The one stellar performance in the film is by Richard Jenkins ("The Visitor"), who plays Richard the Texan and befriends Liz by telling her the truth about forgiveness. Jenkins didn't just go through the motions for this film; his character was authentic and credible. Actually, the Indian portion of the film was the high point for me -- not because of meditation and Hindu ritual, but because we could feel Richard's anguish and his truth.

Since we are on the topic of Hindusim, let me address Julia Robert's "conversion" to this eastern religion and the Catholic response to it (see -pray-love-attracts-wrath-of-catholic-leaders_100414982.html).

I didn't know Julia Roberts was a baptized Catholic. I asked a friend today, who is an active Catholic in the industry, if she was aware of this. She said she had heard something here and there about Julia and her brother Eric being Catholic, but had never seen it confirmed. Now it seems Julia's father was Protestant and her mother a Catholic and Julia now says she is a practicing Hindu.

Here's the deal. Instead of castigating Julia Roberts for becoming a Hindu, or maybe judging author Liz Gilbert for not turning to her early Protestant roots, however thin, why don't we ask: why did Christianity not respond to their search for meaning when they needed it? Where was the Christian community in Gilbert's time of need? How did we fail as Christians and church to speak to their existential questions? Why blame Julia? Alas.

Then, wasn't it Flannery O'Connor who once wrote that many people come to the church by means the church does not approve? I think of Venerable Francis Libermann (1804-1852) founder of the Spiritans (Congregation of the Holy Ghost). In the midst of great spiritual distress and distance from his orthodox Jewish father, he read Jean-Jacques Rousseau's Emile (1762), a book that offended both Catholics and Protestants because it denies original sin (and other things though it does not seem to have made it to the Index of Forbidden Books.) But it became the spark of grace that led to his conversion to Catholicism. See Adrian Van Kaam's 1984 book Light to the Gentiles, arguably one of the best biographies ever written in my humble opinion ( -Gentiles-Adrian-van-Kaam/dp/0819138045).

Elizabeth Gilbert could have borrowed for her book the title Adventures in Grace from Raissa Maritain's now out of print memoir about converting to Catholicism in early 20th century Paris. Gilbert's adventures (and Julia's) have not led them to the fullness of the Christian faith -- yet. Romans 5:20 comes to mind.

Why do we want authors and movie stars to do our work for us? Why can we not make Eat Pray Love the subject of evangelization and catechesis as the U.S. bishops' 2005 document "The National Directory for Catechesis" suggests? (See Chapter Ten). Millions will see the film in theaters and on DVD and then television or via the Internet. Do church officials think that by denigrating the actor and the film they will contribute to the new evangelization? How does that work, exactly?

Watching "Eat Pray Love" was like watching television lite. It could have been so much more. I think a television mini-series might have been the better medium. But never mind. It's too late now. The book touched my soul; the movie my wallet. Alas.

I still like Julia Roberts, and I'm not sorry that Eat Pray Love made a lot of money this weekend, because as I said Friday, the round of stories about whether she's washed up had gotten a little old.

But wow, that movie is really, really not good. For a movie made from an adored book, it's a startlingly weak film. And what's odd is how specific and simple the reasons are for its not being good -- and for the fact that people who read the book and loved it probably will love the movie, too.

It's much too long. First things first: two hours and 20 minutes is simply far too long for this story. By the time Elizabeth Gilbert -- or, rather, the person I will call "Movie Liz," to distinguish her from both Book Liz and actual Elizabeth Gilbert in real life -- finishes up in Italy, the thought that there are two entire countries left for her to visit is like realizing at the close of a one-hour doctor's appointment that the doctor has only looked in one ear. Fewer shots of pasta would have been a good place to start.

Inadequate attention is given to establishing the reason for the trip. Full disclosure: I'm only about a quarter of the way through the book at this point, but from only one quarter of the book, I already understand why Book Liz went on this journey. Book Liz had an unhappy marriage to an often unkind person, followed unsuccessful efforts to get pregnant with the painful realization that she didn't want to get pregnant, got a divorce, and then had her heart ripped out by a broken relationship with another guy she really loved. She went through depression, medication for depression, and lots more before deciding on her year-long international trip.

Movie Liz, on the other hand, wakes up one night unhappy in her marriage and dumps her apparently sweet and loving, if somewhat flaky, husband. She then uses a hot young guy who's unlucky enough to be actually in love with her to get over her divorce, and then, for no particular reason, she dumps him, too. And then: Off to Italy!

My own parents have a small farm, and my sister and I grew up working. We were taught to be dependable, responsible, the top of our classes at school, the most organized and efficient babysitters in town, the very miniature models of our hardworking farmer/nurse of a mother, a pair of junior Swiss Army knives, born to multitask. We had a lot of enjoyment in my family, a lot of laughter, but the walls were papered with to-do lists and I never experienced or witnessed idleness, not once in my whole entire life.

This is critical information. That Book Liz has never known idleness, that she was raised working on a farm in addition to babysitting, helps the reader understand why she needs to pause for breath. Without this background, her quest to do nothing seems simply to be born of a desire to spoil herself and eat.

It's possible that the people who made the movie were afraid that the book deal would make the trip seem crass; less like an inspired journey and more like work. But to me, the fact that she was writing a book makes it less like obsessive, self-interested navel-gazing, because she intended all along to share the story with other people. And that's not to mention the fact that it helps people understand how anyone affords to go off for a year to eat pasta and meditate without simply being a self-indulgent rich person.

Small moments of selfishness. It would really help if Movie Liz ever seemed interested in anyone but herself. Instead, she takes an interest in a friend's baby only as it relates to her own decisions about parenthood. She gets to Italy and immediately starts complaining about the bathtub. She devotes her meditation to a young girl unhappy about an upcoming arranged marriage only as a last resort intended to facilitate her own spiritual growth. Even a fleeting moment or two in the movie where she seems to be thinking of others and is willing to give of herself without wanting anything back would have been a great help.

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