Director/screenwriter Ryan Murphy (Glee) and screenwriter Jennifer Salt faced particular challenges in adapting Elizabeth Gilbert’s popular book. Eat Pray Love spent over 182 weeks on the New York Times Non-Fiction Best Seller list, and both critics and fans were quite taken with Gilbert’s chronicle of her year long journey. Expectations for the film were high, and because it is a true story, Murphy and Salt were limited in what they could change. The filmmakers did not take many liberties, although some fans of the book may quibble with details excluded and embellished. The film is not perfect, but this fan of the book admires the effort Murphy and Salt made in Eat Pray Love. The filmmakers also get a big assist from a terrific cast.

After an acrimonious divorce from husband Stephen (Billy Crudup) and a painful break-up with new boyfriend David (James Franco), writer Liz Gilbert (Julia Roberts) realizes she needs to change her life. She tells friend Delia (Viola Davis) that she wants to “regain her appetite for food and life.” Liz is also in search of spiritual enlightenment. She travels to Rome, India and Bali and spends four months in each place. In Rome, Liz seeks food in what she calls her “no carb left behind experiment.” She seeks divine experiences meditating in an ashram in India. Will she find balance and love in Bali?

The location shots in Italy, India and Bali look gorgeous and convey in a few moments what takes many pages of writing to describe. Murphy does an excellent job with his lingering close ups of pasta, fish and all the meals Liz eats in Italy.  In each place, he manages to capture the spirit and emotion of the events and experiences that change Liz. But there are some difficulties in transforming this 300 plus page book into an over 2 hour film.  In one scene in India, after receiving advice from Richard from Texas (Richard Jenkins), Liz asks, “Do you always talk in bumper stickers?” Many of the characters in the film do sound like bumper stickers. While the exact same words spread over many pages in the book sound natural, they sound strange and clichéd when crammed into the space a film provides.  More context is needed for these words to be effective. The result is that many of the characters in Eat Pray Love sound a bit preachy.

Some people (I admit to being one of them) objected to Julia Roberts in the lead role, because Roberts seems too beautiful to play the real life Gilbert, or the real life anybody. And Roberts is beautiful, to be sure, even though her glamour is downplayed here. But as I watched her, I forgot about her beauty and noticed instead how her smile in this film looked like Gilbert’s and how she exuded the warmth and passion of the character. When Liz eats pizza in Naples (one of my favorite scenes in the book), Roberts consumes the pizza with gusto and relish. “I am having a relationship with my pizza,” she proclaims, looking giddy. I believe her.  Billy Crudup manages to make quarrelsome ex-husband Stephen seem likable, James Franco is charming as younger boyfriend David and Javier Bardem is irresistible and compelling as new love Felipe. But it is Richard Jenkins who almost runs away with this film. As Richard from Texas, Liz’s larger than life friend at the Indian ashram, Jenkins injects necessary moments of humor into his part of the film. But when he tells Liz about his past alcoholism, without ever being maudlin, he manages to make the scene the film’s most moving.

But even with the star power of the cast and strong direction, Gilbert’s story is the real star of this film. I believe that one’s feeling about the story will determine their reaction to Eat Pray Love. If you have not read the book, and this story sounds interesting, you will most likely enjoy this film. If this story bores or annoys you, skip the film and the book. I like the story, the book and the film.

Eat Pray Love. Directed by Ryan Murphy. Julia Roberts (Liz Gilbert) Billy Crudup (Stephen), Viola Davis (Delia Shiraz), James Franco (David Piccolo), Richard Jenkins (Richard from Texas) and Javier Bardem (Felipe). Columbia Pictures, 2010.

Gail sees a movie appears every Wednesday.

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