Eat Pray Love

 

picture courtesy of coverawards.com

 

I think everybody feel this way one time or another. Searching for your self in the midst of confusion, prioritizing what’s really important in life that will bring us true happiness is easier said than done. Finding the right balance is life is not easy.

Julia Roberts has done it again in portraying the role of Liz Gilbert is one of her masterpieces in Eat Pray Love. Backed up with exceptional actors to complete the ensemble. Billy Crudup (Stephen) is Liz’s husband who eventually got divorced that probably started her dilemma. She was focused to find herself by letting go of her material possessions, after handing them to Stephen at the start of the divorce proceedings. Then Liz met James Franco (David) with whom she had a fling after the divorce, testing the waters if happiness was with someone else other than her ex-husband. This led to more confusion for her and discontent that led her to start her own journey.

It all started when she travelled to Bali and came across Ketut Liyer, played by Hadi Subiyanto, a spiritual adviser. Ketut read her palms and saw some signs of things to come in her life like unhappiness, discontent, and confusion. Upon her return to New York, things started falling into place, signs were showing of what Ketut predicted.

This led to her journey which started in Italy where she tries to find herself though her passion for food. There she met very interesting people who kept her company in the safe environment with friends. From there she travelled to India where she focuses on prayer and meditation. It took her a while to open herself up on how to pray and meditate but with the help of a colleague, Richard, played by Richard Jenkins, she soon enough got closer to her goal in searching for herself. From there she travelled to Bali, where she came back to meet Ketut. She opted to stay longer in Bali to continue her meditation and self discovery. Then she met Felipe, played by Javier Bardem, where as she is starting to find herself, as fate would show, she also found love.

After finding out that Ryan Murphy was the screenwriter and director of the movie, I was not that surprised. I’ve grown accustomed to his work, both in television and movies.

Eat Pray Love is a very simple story but very deep and reflective. You can’t help but ask yourself if you are centered in your life and if you are truly happy. I appreciate the engaging dialogues and interactions of all the actors in this movie. The diverse personalities and cultures adds more dimensions to the movie and overall lessons to be learned.

I hear that this movie could nominate Julia Roberts for an Oscar. I do wish her luck because she really deserves this.