Eat Pray Love

Actress Julia Roberts has not been in many films of late. Choosing instead to concentrate on her family. This is her first film in a long time where she is the sole lead.

Before the film was released I was only vaguely aware of the book on which the film was based. I have seen it at bookshops but not been too interested. So I did not know much about the film before seeing it. The only thing I had to go on were the not very favourable reviews from other people. Which may explain why I liked the film more than I thought I would. While it is not the best film in the world I found it to be a reasonably entertaining story. I know that the reason for Elizabeth's trip had some people upset because she basically leaves her husband to do it. I don't know what her husband is really like but they have made an effort to make him less than favourable so we as an audience understand why she left him. The only big problem I had with the film was her relationship with David Piccolo. I know that the writers would have to stick to the story to please the book's fans. But as someone who has not read the book and can only judge the story based on the film, I felt he was not necessary to the story. His only reason for being there is to introduce Liz to a guru which could have been done by someone else or in another way.

I really like Julia Roberts as an actress. While she has not always done the best films, I quite like her performances. Here she does a decent job but nothing too spectacular. To me it is the type of performance you expect from her and does not stretch her range too much. Billy Crudup is good in his role but as mentioned above your really expect to like his character. James Franco is also good in an unnecessary role. Richard Jenkins is excellent and give one of the films best performances. But you expect that from him. Javier Bardem is also excellent as you expect.

A decent film that I found a lot better than I expected. It does drag in a few places but has certainly made me think about making a major change in my life.