Eat Pray Love

Summary: Julia Roberts plays a woman, Liz, who is struggling with her life and decides to divorce and change her life based on an interview with a medicine man in Bali. She wanders a bit, and ends up buying three one-way tickets to Italy, India, and Bali. Along the way, she tries to find a greater philosophy in her life through the people she meet and the circumstances she's put into.

Review: It was a bit too feminine for me at some parts, but I enjoyed the bigger message that excludes the cliche themes of love and why a woman needs a man. Julia Roberts does give a commanding performance and shows why she is more than just a big name at times and the supporting cast was decent. The thing that bothered me most was how there was a message that it's okay to engorge yourself with food like Liz does as it's part of the equation of EAT, pray, and love, and need to get bigger jeans, but still somehow have a slim figure like Liz.

Further Question/Philosophy/Theme: Does everyone need to struggle to find something in their life? Do you need to be spiritual to have a chance to find the path? The story seeks to make too much about this journey finding a relationship, maybe that is just a woman thing as a woman is biologically wired to have children and if that doesn't happen, it's something that really messes with her head. The story would have been better off from a philosophical point of view if the relationships weren't so entangled in the story, but a side track of finding yourself is much more important. "Dolce far niente," sweetness of doing nothing, is an interesting concept and maybe there is more to it despite its point of nothingness.

Power Rating (Out of 5) and Comments: 4 It was a very enjoyable movie once the crux of the adventures begin and I always enjoy watching exotic settings. It was a relatively long movie at 140 minutes, but it felt much shorter as the scenes really flow by despite the non-action tag of the film.

Favorite Quotes: "I remember an old catholic joke about a man who spent his whole life going to a church every day and prayed to the statue of a great saint begging "please, please, please, let me win the lottery." Finally the exasperated statue comes to life and looks down at the begging man and says "my son, please, please, please, buy a ticket." So now I get the joke, and I bought three tickets." - Liz

Luca Spaghetti (Giuseppe Gandini): "Americans. You work too hard, you get burned out. You come home and spend the whole weekend in your pajamas in front of the T.V."
Liz: "That's not far off, actually."
Luca Spaghetti: "But you don't know pleasure. You have to be told you've earned it. You see a commercial that says: 'It's Miller Time!' And you say, That's right, now I'm going to buy a six pack. And then drink the whole thing and wake up the next morning and you feel terrible. But an Italian doesn't need to be told. He walks by a sign that says: You deserve a break today. And he says, Yes, I know. That's why I'm planning on taking a break at noon to go over to your house and sleep...with your wife!"

"We call it "dolce far niente", the sweetness of doing nothing." - Giovanni

"You seem shorter in person that on the stage.
Really? I get that a lot.
It's unnerving when um a total stranger sees you more clearly than you see yourself. That is what I mean by saying you're short.

Awkward Silence

Are you hearing dolphins clapping now?"