<\/strong><\/p>\n Directed By: Ryan Murphy<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/strong><\/p>\n Starring: Julia Roberts, Billy Crudup, Viola Davis, James Franco, Tuva Novotny, Luca Argentero, Richard Jenkins, Javier Bardem, Hadi Subiyanto<\/strong><\/p>\n \n Like Glee<\/em>? Sorry, but this film’s not for you. Despite the fact that Eat Pray Love<\/em> is directed by the show’s writer-director Ryan Murphy, it’s absolutely nothing like it. It’s got some fantastic music selection, ones that would be nice to hear the William McKinley High School kids revamp, but other than that, Eat Pray Love<\/em> is exactly the opposite, dreary, no fun and unmemorable. Eat, pray, love? More like eat, pray, snooze.<\/p>\n \n Julia Roberts stars as Liz, a woman whose life changes after meeting a medicine man named Ketut (Hadi Subiyanto) who predicts she\u2019ll have two marriages, one short and one long. This forces her to recognize the fact that she may very well be in the midst of the short one and ultimately compels her to cut her husband (Billy Crudup) loose. From there she lands in the arms of a young actor (James Franco) and when that doesn\u2019t pan out, she opts to screw it all and go on a yearlong abroad adventure during which she\u2019ll eat, pray and love.<\/p>\n \n The stateside moments and the eating parts work, it\u2019s the praying and loving portions that come across as pretentious and boring garbage. The success of the New York portion is in large part due to Crudup who seems to be the only one interested in having any fun with his role. Viola Davis gets a few laughs as Liz\u2019s stoic yet caring friend Delia, but generally looks like she\u2019d rather take a nap than have anything to do with this project. The same goes for Franco as Liz\u2019s fling, David, whose eyelids are so heavy he looks as though he could nod off any second. Sleepy cast aside, at this point you don\u2019t totally despise Liz, the film is rather well paced and you\u2019re ready to get on with the show.<\/p>\n \n Roberts\u2019 co-stars lighten up quite a bit on the first leg of Liz\u2019s trip, Italy. This is basically the portion of the film where Liz stuffs her face and Murphy manages to pull off a cooking show-style vibe; it\u2019s almost fun to see the next delicacy that\u2019s laid out in front of her. Plus, she\u2019s got a nice bunch of friends to hang out with, weakly developed, but still amiable characters. The deepest she gets with these folks is having a heart-to-heart with new pal Sofi (Tuva Novotny) when she refuses to eat a pizza because she\u2019s gained too much weight.<\/p>\n \n Not that Eat Pray Love<\/em> has been anymore than passable so far, but it completely hits a wall the moment Liz steps foot in India. Not even a mildly intriguing Richard Jenkins can save this portion from being drowned in droning hums, chanting and praying. He makes for a good adversary, rather harshly urging Liz to get out of her head, but it\u2019s nearly impossible to appreciate in the midst of parts about some meaningless connection Liz develops with a young Indian girl and way too much meditating.<\/p>\n \n At this point your patience has completely worn thin, but you still have another country to visit, Bali. This is where Liz reunites with Ketut whose whole broken-English-guru-with-a-sense-of-humor charm becomes ridiculous and annoying. Even worse is Javier Bardem who finally arrives with roughly 30 minutes left in the film. But it\u2019s really no loss because not only is his character completely useless, but he\u2019s not looking as suave as usual. Regardless of his scruffy appearance, Liz falls for him and in the extremely minimal amount of time left, you\u2019re supposed to believe that she fell hard enough to wash away all of her apprehensions and sail away with him into the sunset. Needless to say, it doesn\u2019t work. Eat Pray Love<\/em> doesn\u2019t even end there. It goes on to purport that her whole trip was actually not so self-centered because she got all of the friends she made along the way to donate some cash so some poor woman and her kid in Bali could build a home. Needless to say, that doesn\u2019t work either.<\/p>\n \n
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