| Eat Pray Love | |
| Director: | Ryan Murphy |
| Producer: | Dede Gardner |
| Music: | Dario Marianelli |
| Cinematography: | Robert Richardson |
| Editing: | Bradley Buecker |
| Studio: | Columbia Pictures Plan B Entertainment |
| Distributor: | Sony Pictures Releasing |
| Country: | United States |
| Budget: | $60 million[1] |
| Gross: | $204.6 million |
Eat Pray Love is a 2010 American biographical romantic drama film starring Julia Roberts as Elizabeth Gilbert, based on Gilbert's 2006 memoir of the same name. Ryan Murphy co-wrote and directed the film, which was released in the United States on August 13, 2010. It received mixed reviews from critics, but was a financial success, grossing $204.6 million worldwide against a $60 million budget.
Elizabeth 'Liz' Gilbert has been married for 8 years, owns a house, and has a successful career. However, despite her seemingly stable life, she feels lost and confused, longing for something more meaningful. Liz decides to ask for a divorce from her husband, Stephen, which he struggles to accept. During this period, she has a brief affair with David, a young actor. Newly divorced and facing uncertainty, Liz embarks on a transformative journey to Italy, India, and Bali, seeking self-discovery.
During her travels, Liz discovers the joy of Italian cuisine, indulging in pasta and gelato for four months. She meets a new Swedish friend who introduces her to a private Italian tutor, and they share a Thanksgiving celebration before Liz heads to India. In India, Liz stays at an ashram where she delves into the power of prayer and is tasked with humbling chores like scrubbing floors. 'Texas Richard' becomes both a challenge and a support system for her. As her time at the ashram comes to an end, Liz moves on to Bali, Indonesia.
In Bali, Indonesia, Liz reunited with Ketut, a local healer, and takes on various tasks he assigns her. While cycling, she has a run-in with Felipe, a Brazilian, and seeks treatment for an injury from Wayan, a village healer. During her recovery, she meets Armenia, who encourages her to join in village festivities. There, Felipe apologizes for the accident, and they strike up a conversation. Despite Armenia's attempt to set her up with someone else, Liz finds herself drawn to Felipe. They spend time together, and Liz organizes a fundraiser for Wayan's house, raising over $18,000 USD.
When Felipe proposes, Liz agrees, but as they spend time alone in a remote location, she becomes overwhelmed and breaks off the engagement. As she prepares to leave Bali, Liz seeks advice from Ketut, who urges her to embrace love without fear. Inspired, Liz rushes to Felipe and confesses her love for him, finally finding inner peace and the balance of true love unexpectedly.
Eat Pray Love began principal photography in August 2009. Filming locations include New York City (United States), Rome and Naples (Italy), Delhi and Pataudi (India), Ubud and Padang-Padang Beach at Bali (Indonesia).[2]
Hindu leaders voiced concern over the production of the film and advocated the use of spiritual consultants to ensure that the film conveyed an accurate reflection of life in an ashram.[3] [4] Both Salon.com and The New York Post have suggested that Gurumayi Chidvilasananda was the guru featured in the film and in the book by Elizabeth Gilbert on which the film was based, though Gilbert herself did not identify the ashram or the guru by name.[5] The two Balinese lead characters (Ketut Liyer and Wayan) are played by Indonesian actors Hadi Subiyanto and Christine Hakim, respectively.
The film debuted at #2 behind The Expendables with $23,104,523. It had the highest debut at the box office with Roberts in a lead role since America's Sweethearts in 2001.[7] During its initial ten-day run, revenue grew to a total of $47.2 million.[8] The competing film The Expendables features Eric Roberts, Julia Roberts's brother, and the box office pitted Roberts versus Roberts. Hollywood.com commented that "sibling rivalry is rarely as publicly manifested" as this.[9] The film, produced on a $60 million budget, grossed $80,574,382 in the United States and Canada and has a worldwide total of $204,594,016.
On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a 36% approval rating based on 210 reviews with an average rating of 5.20/10. The site's critical consensus reads "The scenery is nice to look at, and Julia Roberts is as luminous as ever, but without the spiritual and emotional weight of the book that inspired it, Eat Pray Love is too shallow to resonate."[10] On Metacritic, it has a score of 50 based on reviews from 39 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".[11] Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film a grade B on scale of A to F.[12]
Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian gave the film 1 out of 5 stars, beginning his review "Sit, watch, groan. Yawn, fidget, stretch. Eat Snickers, pray for end of dire film about Julia Roberts's emotional growth, love the fact it can't last for ever. Wince, daydream, frown. Resent script, resent acting, resent dinky tripartite structure. Grit teeth, clench fists, focus on plot. Troubled traveller Julia finds fulfilment through exotic foreign cuisine, exotic foreign religion, sex with exotic foreign Javier Bardem. Film patronises Italians, Indians, Indonesians. Julia finds spirituality, rejects rat race, gives Balinese therapist 16 grand to buy house. Balinese therapist is grateful, thankful, humble. Sigh, blink, sniff. Check watch, groan, slump."[13]
Wesley Morris of The Boston Globe gave the film 3 out of 4 stars while writing "Is it a romantic comedy? Is it a chick flick? This is silly, since, in truth, it's neither. It's simply a Julia Roberts movie, often a lovely one."[14] San Francisco Chronicle film critic Mick LaSalle overall positively reviewed the film and praised Murphy's "sensitive and tasteful direction" as it "finds way to illuminate and amplify Gilbert's thoughts and emotions, which are central to the story".[15]
Negative reviews appeared in The Chicago Reader, in which Andrea Gronvall commented that the film is "ass-numbingly wrong",[16] and Rolling Stone, in which Peter Travers referred to watching it as "being trapped with a person of privilege who won't stop with the whine whine whine."[17] Humor website Something Awful ran a scathing review. Martin R. "Vargo" Schneider highlighted several aspects of the film that he considered completely unrealistic.[18] Political columnist Maureen Dowd termed the film "navel-gazing drivel" in October 2010.[19]
The BBC's Mark Kermode listed the film as 4th on his list of Worst Films of the Year, saying: "Eat Pray Love... vomit. A film with the message that learning to love yourself is the greatest love of all, although I think the people who made that film loved themselves rather too much."[20]
In The Huffington Post, critic Jenna Busch wrote:
In the Italian newspaper La Repubblica, journalist Curzio Maltese wrote:
The film received generally negative reviews in the Italian press.[21] [22] [23]
Marketers for the film created over 400 merchandising tie-ins.[24] Products included Eat Pray Love-themed jewelry, perfume, tea,[25] gelato machines, an oversized Indonesian bench,[26] prayer beads, and a bamboo window shade.[27] World Market department store opened an entire section in all of their locations devoted to merchandise tied to the movie.
The Home Shopping Network ran 72 straight hours of programming featuring Eat Pray Love products around the time of the film's release. The decision to market such a wide range of products, hardly any of which were actually featured in the film, brought criticism from The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Washington Post and The Huffington Post.[28]