Based on the real memoir of Elizabeth Gilbert, this is a movie that is (naturally) being cast as a ‘chick flick’.
Liz is a New York writer, who after a disastrous short term marriage to smitten husband Stephen
(Billy Crudup)bolts overseas to 3 countries to ‘ find herself’.
First stop – a food fest in Italy, then on to a more Spartan regime in an Indian Ashram and finally to Indonesia- where, happily for Liz, hunky Javier is just waiting for her to show up and ‘trust’ her instincts!
This book ,of course, shot to fame after being endorsed by Oprah- so the movie was a “ shoo- in” to be popular.
The fact is that this premise of looking for something ‘more’ does have something to say to a stricken ‘consumer based’ western society looking for a deeper meaning to their empty , stressful lives.
Does the film fulfil that?
Unhappily, no.
While the book does address these issues in a much fuller way, the usual constraints of movie making ‘Hollywood style’ get in the way here. Trying to condense the book and using the big ‘bankable’ star power is what the studio system does best – and it so often falls very short of the mark.
It is cinematically gorgeous-Robert Richardson’s location scenery is almost worth sitting through nearly 2 and half hours! As always the camera ‘loves’ Ms Roberts (and Javier Bardem) and the locations themselves are stunning.
All of that Hollywood ‘fire power’ cannot carry this overly long movie, full of trite & obvious sentiment- with no real wit or spark. What a shame!