Director: Ryan Murphy
Starring: Julia Roberts, James Franco, Billy Crudup, Viola Davis, and Javier Bardem
Distributor: Sony Pictures
Runtime: 140 mins. Reviewed in Nov 2011

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Rating notes: Infrequent coarse language

Julia Roberts plays the part of Elizabeth Gilbert, who experiences a painful divorce. After the break-down of her marriage, she embarks on a year-long journey to discover her true self, and risks almost everything to experience profound change in her life. Her journey is epic in nature as she travels the globe in search of the inner peace and harmony that she is looking for, but which she has never found. She experiences the sensual pleasure of eating in Italy, the power of prayer in India, and finds love in Indonesia. Few actresses would attempt to attack this role, but Julia Robert’s brings to it her usual radiance and spontaneity. She is on camera virtually all the time, smiling, crying, and looking photogenic. However, ultimately, she delivers a performance that doesn’t say a great deal about the personal growth of Elizabeth Gilbert. As a result, the movie leaves one with the feeling of shallowness and superficiality. Whatever is there in Gilbert’s book doesn’t translate effectively to the screen.

By way of coping with a husband (Billy Crudup), with whom she is unhappy, Elizabeth forms a relationship with a much younger man (James Franco). The relationship fails, and she leaves him. She puts her job in New York on hold, and goes in search of self-discovery. Viola Davis plays the part of Elizabeth’s best friend who has begun a similar search. Elizabeth finds her solution in a final love affair with Felipe (Javier Bardem) in Indonesia. Given Elizabeth’s search, it is hard to accept that the solution lies in her forging a love relationship with a man that may again fail.

The film is a wonderful travelogue. Three countries are captured extremely scenically in the travels, but because Elizabeth’s personality never really changes, the film suffers from a lack of depth. Apart from some heavy philosophical introspections, and some good acting moments by Roberts, Franco, and Bardem, the movie fails to leave you seriously moved. Elizabeth’s search to find herself comes across as self-indulgent rather than dramatic, or inherently interesting, and she seeks personal discovery of a spirituality that is almost entirely ego-centric. Maybe the problem is that Gilbert’s story needs to be read rather than heard or seen.

This movie also is overlong, though it is never hard to experience Julia Robert’s particular radiance in action. The locations are wonderful, and they all capture the ambience and spirit of the countries that are shown. However, the film is full of clichés, and, overall, it doesn’t greatly nurture or nourish the soul.