at the movies: eat pray love
November 4, 2010 in movies
I’ve been resisting seeing Eat Pray Love because I’m always a little wary of book-to-screen translations and like so many divorced and legally separated women before me, I found myself completely able to relate to Elizabeth Gilchrist’s book. (“Yeah, yeah,” I hear you say. “We’ve heard it all before – cut to the review already!”)
So last night I finally headed along with my most chick-flick friendly girlfriend to see exactly how the internal-monologue driven book would hold up as a big screen extravaganza.
If you don’t know the story, here’s the gist. Elizabeth Gilbert (Julia Roberts) realises she doesn’t want to be married to the former man of her dreams anymore and after a bitter divorce (and passionate affair with a younger man), she heads off on a year long journey to Italy (to eat), India (to pray), and Bali (to, well, love).
Devotees of the book should be prepared that the film to take some rather significant deviations from the text (i.e. pretty much everything that happens in Bali). But if you can let that go and pretend instead that this film coincidentally shares the same name and lead character, it’s enjoyable in a self-discovering, chick-flick kind of way.
I enjoyed the cinematography and thought it was particularly well executed in Rome, where the close up shots of food and people eating had an almost erotic quality (I know that sounds crazy but it’s the only way I can explain it).
As with Sex and the City, this is a film to see with the girls. Just make sure you stock up on tissues for anyone who hasn’t read the book and has been through a divorce.
Rating: ***
follow the dernier cri