Wikipedia

Eat Pray Love

For the book, see Eat, Pray, Love.

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.

Eat Pray Love
Theatrical release poster
Directed byRyan Murphy
Screenplay by
Based onEat, Pray, Love
by Elizabeth Gilbert
Produced byDede Gardner
Starring
CinematographyRobert Richardson
Edited byBradley Buecker
Music byDario Marianelli
Production
companies
Distributed bySony Pictures Releasing
Release date
  • August 13, 2010 (2010-08-13)
Running time
  • 133 minutes
  • 140 minutes (extended)[1]
CountryUnited States
Languages
  • English
  • Italian
  • Portuguese
  • Indonesian
Budget$60 million[2]
Box office$204.6 million

Plot

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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.

Cast

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Production

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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).[3]

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.[4][5] 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.[6] The two Balinese lead characters (Ketut Liyer and Wayan) are played by Indonesian actors Hadi Subiyanto and Christine Hakim, respectively.

Soundtrack

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  1. "Flight Attendant" by Josh Rouse
  2. "Last Tango In Paris (Suite, Part 2)" by Gato Barbieri
  3. "Thank You" by Sly & the Family Stone
  4. "Der Hölle Rache kocht in meinem Herzen" (from Mozart's The Magic Flute) by Wiener Philharmoniker
  5. "Heart of Gold" by Neil Young
  6. "Kaliyugavaradana" by U. Srinivas
  7. "The Long Road" by Eddie Vedder and Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan[7]
  8. "Harvest Moon" by Neil Young
  9. "Samba da Bênção" by Bebel Gilberto
  10. "Wave" by João Gilberto
  11. "Got to Give It Up, Part 1" by Marvin Gaye
  12. "'S Wonderful" by João Gilberto
  13. "Better Days" by Eddie Vedder
  14. "Attraversiamo" by Dario Marianelli
  15. "Dreams" by Fleetwood Mac
  16. "Boyz" by M.I.A.

Reception

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Box office

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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.[8] During its initial ten-day run, revenue grew to a total of $47.2 million.[9] The competing film The Expendables features Eric Roberts, Julia Roberts' brother, and the box office pitted Roberts versus Roberts. Hollywood.com commented that "sibling rivalry is rarely as publicly manifested" as this.[10] 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.

Critical response

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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."[11] On Metacritic, it has a score of 50 based on reviews from 39 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".[12] Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film a grade B on scale of A to F.[13]

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' emotional growth, love the fact it can't last forever. 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."[14]

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."[15] 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".[16]

Negative reviews appeared in The Chicago Reader, in which Andrea Gronvall commented that the film is "ass-numbingly wrong",[17] 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."[18] Humor website Something Awful ran a scathing review. Martin R. "Vargo" Schneider highlighted several aspects of the film that he considered completely unrealistic.[19] Political columnist Maureen Dowd termed the film "navel-gazing drivel" in October 2010.[20]

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."[21]

In The Huffington Post, critic Jenna Busch wrote:

Eat Pray Love is ultimately charming and inspirational. Though it doesn't have quite the impact of the book, it will likely leave you pondering your life choices and forgiving your flaws. It will certainly have you forgiving the few flaws in the film. The performances are just too fantastic, the vistas too lovely to pay too much attention to anything else.[22]

In the Italian newspaper La Repubblica, journalist Curzio Maltese wrote:

How many platitudes fit in a two-hour-twenty-minutes-long movie? Several, if Eat Pray Love is anything to go by. Sure, if TV director Ryan Murphy's directing weren't so slow, even more would. For example, in the long part shot in Rome, the mandolin is conspicuously absent. There's a shower of spaghetti, Italians who gesticulate all the time and shout vulgarities as they follow foreign girls around. [...] There's lots of pizza. But no mandolin. Why? [...] Goes without saying that the story would've surprised us more if Julia had found out how well one can eat in Mumbai, how much they pray in Indonesia, and how one can fall in love even in the Grande Raccordo Anulare, possibly avoiding rush hour.[23]

The film received generally negative reviews in the Italian press.[24][25][26]

Merchandising

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Marketers for the film created over 400 merchandising tie-ins.[27] Products included Eat Pray Love-themed jewelry,[28] perfume,[28] tea,[28] gelato machines,[27] an oversized Indonesian bench,[29] prayer beads, and a bamboo window shade.[30] World Market department store opened an entire section in all of their locations devoted to merchandise tied to the movie.[29]

The Home Shopping Network ran 72 straight hours of programming featuring Eat Pray Love products around the time of the film's release.[27] 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,[27] The Washington Post and The Huffington Post.[31]

References

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  1. ^ "EAT PRAY LOVE (PG)". British Board of Film Classification. August 6, 2010. Archived from the original on May 6, 2014. Retrieved May 15, 2013.
  2. ^ Fritz, Ben (August 12, 2010). "Movie projector: Stallone's 'Expendables' to blow away 'Eat Pray Love' and 'Scott Pilgrim'". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on November 22, 2018. Retrieved August 12, 2010.
  3. ^ Tatiana Siegel (April 14, 2009). "Jenkins set for 'Eat, Pray, Love'". Variety. Archived from the original on September 3, 2009. Retrieved August 29, 2009.
  4. ^ Eat Pray Love-No Shooting In Original Ashram Archived July 17, 2010, at the Wayback Machine Retrieved May 10, 2010
  5. ^ 'Eat Pray Love' Julia Roberts Movie Worries Hindus Archived August 12, 2018, at the Wayback Machine Retrieved May 10, 2010
  6. ^ Shah, Riddhi. The "Eat, Pray, Love" guru's troubling past." Archived November 25, 2011, at the Wayback Machine Salon.com, August 14, 2010. Retrieved November 22, 2011
  7. ^ "Eddie Vedder with Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan: The Long Road". Review. Basement Songs. March 11, 2010. Archived from the original on June 24, 2016. Retrieved March 10, 2012.
  8. ^ 'Expendables' Explode, 'Eat Pray Love' Carbo-Loads, 'Scott Pilgrim' Powers Down Archived October 25, 2012, at the Wayback Machine boxofficemojo.com
  9. ^ Gray, Brandon (August 23, 2010). "Weekend Report: 'Expendables' Battle On, 'Vampires,' 'Piranha' Settle for Scraps". Box Office Mojo. Archived from the original on November 16, 2018. Retrieved April 20, 2020.
  10. ^ Dergarabedian, Paul (August 10, 2010). "Julia Roberts vs. Eric Roberts at box office..." Hollywood.com. Archived from the original on September 30, 2012. Retrieved August 16, 2010.
  11. ^ "Eat Pray Love Movie Reviews, Pictures". Rotten Tomatoes. Fandango Media. Archived from the original on April 13, 2024. Retrieved September 19, 2021.
  12. ^ "Eat Pray Love Reviews". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Archived from the original on January 19, 2021. Retrieved August 14, 2020.
  13. ^ "CinemaScore". CinemaScore. Archived from the original on April 13, 2022. Retrieved April 16, 2022.
  14. ^ Peter, Bradshaw (September 23, 2010). "Eat Pray Love". the Guardian. Archived from the original on June 16, 2022. Retrieved September 23, 2010.
  15. ^ Wesley, Morris (August 13, 2010). "Eat Pray Love movie review". The Boston Globe. The New York Times Company. Archived from the original on March 4, 2016. Retrieved September 14, 2020.
  16. ^ LaSalle, Mike (August 13, 2010). "Movie review: "Eat Pray Love"". San Francisco Chronicle. Hearst Corporation. Archived from the original on March 16, 2012. Retrieved September 14, 2020.
  17. ^ Gronvall, Andrea (August 12, 2010). "Eat Pray Love Showtimes & Reviews". Chicago Reader. Creative Loafing Media. Archived from the original on August 30, 2010. Retrieved September 14, 2020.
  18. ^ Travers, Peter (August 12, 2010). "Eat Pray Love News and Reviews". Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on March 2, 2021. Retrieved September 14, 2020.
  19. ^ "Something Awful – The Expendables; Scott Pilgrim vs. The World; Eat Pray Love". Archived from the original on March 28, 2012. Retrieved April 20, 2020.
  20. ^ Dowd, Maureen (October 20, 2010). "Making Ignorance Chic". The New York Times. Archived from the original on June 17, 2022. Retrieved October 21, 2010.
  21. ^ Kermode Uncut: My Worst Five Films of 2010 on YouTube. Retrieved December 30, 2010.
  22. ^ Busch, Jenna (August 13, 2010). "Jenna Busch: Eat Pray Love Review". HuffingtonPost.com, Inc. Archived from the original on November 28, 2017. Retrieved April 20, 2020.
  23. ^ Maltese, Curzio (September 18, 2010). "Nella Roma di Julia manca solo il mandolino". La Repubblica. Archived from the original on April 29, 2012. Retrieved September 24, 2010.
  24. ^ Tornabuoni, Lietta. "Lietta Tornabuoni: Eat Pray Love Review". L'Espresso. Archived from the original on September 21, 2010. Retrieved September 23, 2010.
  25. ^ Ferzetti, Fabio. "Fabio Ferzetti: Eat Pray Love Review". Il Messaggero. Archived from the original on September 21, 2010. Retrieved September 23, 2010.
  26. ^ Romani, Cinzia. "Cinzia Romani: Eat Pray Love Review". Il Giornale. Archived from the original on November 2, 2010. Retrieved September 23, 2010.
  27. ^ a b c d ABC News article: "Eat, Pray, Love – and Spend Archived January 19, 2021, at the Wayback Machine."
  28. ^ a b c Forbes article: "The Eat Pray Love Industry Archived April 13, 2024, at the Wayback Machine."
  29. ^ a b The Washington Post article: "'Eat Pray Love': Parsing our feelings about all those product tie-ins Archived October 5, 2012, at the Wayback Machine."
  30. ^ World Market website: "Eat Pray Love merchandise Archived August 25, 2010, at the Wayback Machine.
  31. ^ The Huffington Post article: "Shop, Buy, Repeat Archived July 11, 2017, at the Wayback Machine."
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