Eat Pray Love – A Sony Pictures’ Release

http://www.sonypictures.com/homevideo/eatpraylove/

DVD Release Date: November 23rd, 2010

Rated PG for mature theme, language may offend

Running time: 140 minutes

Director’s Cut: 146 minutes

 

Ryan Murphy (dir.)

 

Ryan Murphy (screenplay)

Jennifer Salt (screenplay)

 

Based on the book Eat Pray Love by Elizabeth Gilbert

 

Dario Marianelli (music)

 

Julia Roberts as Liz Gilbert

James Franco as David Piccolo

Richard Jenkins as Richard from Texas

Viola Davis as Delia Shiraz

Billy Crudup as Stephen

Javier Bardem as Felipe

 

Our reviews below:

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Eat Pray Love DVD Review By John C.

**1/2 (out of 4)

Elizabeth Gilbert left her husband, home and job in New York to take a spiritual journey through Italy, India and Bali.  Her travels to enlightenment were documented in her Oprah-endorsed autobiography, Eat Pray Love.  The bestseller is the basis of Ryan Murphy’s (creator of Glee) beautifully shot, but disappointing big screen adaptation of the same name.

 

Gilbert is played here by Julia Roberts, and she is aided by a strong cast, gorgeous scenery and pleasant musical score.  But at 45 minutes too long, the sprawling film is never able to feel authentic or genuine and it left me waiting for an emotional payoff that simply never came.  There’s some nice stuff here, making it mildly worth a look on DVD, but it simply doesn’t realize the full potential of the inspirational true story.

 

The Blu-ray includes a director’s cut of the film – which has 6-minutes of extra footage – as well as featurettes with star Roberts, author Gilbert and director Murphy.

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Eat Pray Love DVD Review By Erin V.

**1/2 (out of 4)

Liz Gilbert (Julia Roberts) had the seemingly successful modern life – married, good job – but she felt incomplete.  Shortly after becoming divorced, she decided to go on a soul-searching journey for a year.  Four months each in Italy, India, and to finish the year, Bali.  Based on the memoir by Elizabeth Gilbert, Eat Pray Love is an interesting and inspiring story on it’s own.

 

The main problem with this film version though, lies in it’s running length.  At nearly 2 and a half hours, we don’t ever really connect with the story, since it doesn’t flow as well as it should.  The acting is all fine here, and the music is pleasant as well.  In fact, the whole film is very nice to look at, and the different cultures she visits are interesting, but I think I would have enjoyed this one a whole lot more with about 45 minutes shaved off of it.

 

Essentially, a tighter script focusing more centrally on key points of the journey, I think would have helped this one out a lot.  It’s not a bad movie, but I never quite felt involved with it.  Now that it’s on DVD though, those interested can rent it – and if they want, try watching it in two parts.

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Eat Pray Love DVD Review By Nicole

**3/4 (out of 4)

Eat Pray Love is a visually pleasing film.  Based on the book of the same name, this movie follows one woman’s quest to grow spiritually.  The woman, Liz Gilbert (Julia Roberts) is unhappy with her marriage.  So she leaves her home in New York and sets off on a year long vacation where she eats in Italy, seeks spiritual guidance in India, and finds love in Bali.

 

Eat Pray Love is a little too long at 140 minutes.  But with a good cast, beautiful visuals and a nice score, this is an entertaining film that is nice for a rainy afternoon.

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Eat Pray Love DVD Review By Maureen

**1/2 (out of 4)

Following another person’s journey to self-discovery and spiritual awakening can be incredibly helpful and inspiring.  That’s what made Elizabeth Gilbert’s book, Eat Pray Love a bestseller.  The movie version with Julia Roberts as Elizabeth (Liz) Gilbert simply doesn’t provide the same sense of inspiration.

 

The story of Liz Gilbert’s year long journey to Italy for good food, India for prayer and meditation and Bali for advice on love is a really interesting one.  In the book, it unfolds a little at a time and the reader can stop at any point.  In the movie the journey seems to drag.  At over 2 hours it just went on too long.  Watching it I felt like a bored six year old whining from the backseat, are we there yet?

 

On the plus side, this is a nice movie to look at.  The scenery is lovely and Julia Roberts is always a joy to watch,  The other supporting actors including James Franco and Javier Bardem give fine performances.  If I were to revisit this one again I would watch it in segments, taking breaks to make some tea and treat it more like a book.  Or maybe, I would just read the book.  Either way, Eat Pray Love is a good story.

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Eat Pray Love DVD Review By Tony

*** (out of 4)

Eat Pray Love, based on a bestselling book, follows travel writer Elizabeth Gilbert (Julia Roberts) on her one year journey to Italy, India and Bali to find herself after growing apart from her husband (Billy Crudup) and a rebound relationship with an actor (James Franco). In Italy with the help of newfound friends, she comes to appreciate the Italian pursuit of pleasure in food and everything else, “il dolce far niente.” At an Indian ashram, with the help of fellow American traveller Richard (Richard Jenkins), she gains inner strength and self-forgiveness through meditation. In Bali she learns to let go further by finding love with a Brazilian (Javier Bardem) who has also struggled with intimacy following divorce.

 

With its great scenery, Eat Pray Love is a beautiful film to watch. Though I found Gilbert rather self-absorbed at times, her journey was well portrayed by Julia Roberts supported by a really strong cast. There is a fine background score with original music by Dario Marianelli including a nice selection of pop songs and seasoned where appropriate with elements of tarantella, tabla, gamelan and bossa nova. However, I found the movie could have been shorter by a half hour or so, particularly the director’s cut on the DVD.

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Consensus: With a good cast, beautiful visuals and pleasant musical score, Eat Pray Love is worth a look on DVD.  But at 140 minutes, it’s simply too long and would have needed a tighter script to fully realize the true potential of the book. **1/2 (Out of 4)