Adapted by Elizabeth Gilbert’s bestselling memoir, “Eat Pray Love” is a story of one woman’s dream to find herself in the cultures around the world. Prior to the premier, “Eat Pray Love” gathered a tremendous amount of hype from all sorts of fans. Now, the movie has spurred even more excitement due to its philosophical inquiries and extraordinary scenery.
“Eat Pray Love” features Liz Gilbert, played by Julia Roberts, a married woman who finds herself searching for substance in her so called “perfect life”. She comes to realize that perhaps the perfect life she has is not the perfect life she needs. After leaving her husband, Liz struggles to find the solution for how to fill the emptiness inside of her. Inspired by her much younger, actor boyfriend, David, played by James Franco, Liz comes to realize that in order to fill the void in her life, she must travel to Italy, India and Bali. At the start of her journey, Liz discovers happiness in Italy’s cuisine, words and lifestyle. In India, she submerges herself in deep meditation while debating in her mind if leaving her husband, her boyfriend and her life in New York was the best decision. Finally, in Bali, Liz revisits a palm reader named Ketut Liyer who she had met in the beginning of the movie. While living in Bali, Liz follows Ketut’s methods for meditation and eventually meets a new love of her life, Felipe, played by Javier Bardem. In this affair, Liz is hesitant to let herself love again, thinking if she does then she will lose the elements of her being, something that she struggled to find throughout the course of her journey.
Although the film’s plot tends to appeal to adult women, the elements incorporated into the movie allow people from every spectrum of life to appreciate the unique qualities of cultures and traditions from all over the world. The food, sceneries and ways of life tend to create a separate story from that of Liz Gilbert’s. Because of the film’s terrific visual footage of three different countries, the audience gets a virtual trip alongside Liz’s journey. This “virtual tour” has recently become so popular that there have been “Eat Pray Love” tours organized to make the movie into a reality by actually visiting each location the movie features as well as participating in the activities the actors perform.
“Eat Pray Love” is a movie that can make people question their own ways of living or simply leave beautiful images of Italy, India and Bali in the back of people’s minds. It is an experience in itself to watch the movie, so, go and see for yourself how the film leaves its mark on you.