YourFamilyExpert By Jonathan Decker (Family therapist, film critic)WHAT'S EAT PRAY LOVE ABOUT? A woman seeks to find herself through a year of traveling, meditation, and dining. Based on the novel of the same name.IS IT ANY GOOD? Before Facebook, you may recall, one might sit through literal slide-shows (projected onto a sheet, for example) in order to experience a friend's vacation. This film feels like sitting through such an evening, if your friend were self-indulgent and a bit narcissistic, kept bringing up her broken marriage and her justifications for a fling during the slideshow, gabbed on and on about the wonderful people she met as if you knew them, and took way too long to show her admittedly scenic slides.As someone who enjoys glimpses into world cultures/religions, good actors, and romance in general, I'll admit that there were a few moments that charmed, enlightened, and moved me. But this sluggishly-paced movie feels a good 45 minutes longer than its 2 hour and 15 minute running time. This is to say nothing of its repetitive narrative structure, general predictability, and disturbing core message: You can find peace through avoidance of accountability and by literally coming to see yourself as your own god. It's all about "love yourself" and "forgive yourself," which is fine, but the protagonist takes no responsibility for what she does to hurt other people early on. Julia Roberts is likable, but her character here mostly is not. This is not a film I'd revisit.IS IT OKAY FOR YOUR KIDS? Eat Pray Love is rated PG-13. It has a fair amount of foul language (including one use of the phrase "mother——," which I thought was only allowed in R-rated films), sexual innuendo, male rear nudity, and implications of adultery and other sex outside of marriage.ANY WORTHWHILE MESSAGES? It is not enough to life for self- fulfillment; one must live to benefit others. Take time to enjoy and savor life.

Garlic Rice This movie's main character is a woman journalist, who does great things in New York. She is busy working and enjoying her life. But her mind doesn't have a feeling of satisfaction truly. And she decides to cast aside position and horror, and sets off on a trip. She goes to Italia, India and Bali. In the traveling, she looks back on her own life, and thinks what is herself.A lot of people have the same feelings with the journalist. We are always busy doing somethings. This is a society of adults. Maybe our minds also don't have a feeling of satisfaction like her. But we can't cast aside position and horror. She can do a thing we can't do. Thus we are envious of her life, and attracted this movie. And this movie has a lot of sense that the characters talk about something like maxims. This inspires our hearts, and we are also attracted.

Magdalena Biela In Europe we've heard about this movie and the respective "book-diary" now, in 2016. That says a lot. Elizabeth Gilbert is such a phony that I felt nauseated while trying to read her pages. I've never read something so low (because I reject the USA trash genre "eat pray love"). Well, in a few words: Liz Gilbert preaches about silence, humbleness, searching and finding God, blah, blah, while she makes a fortune out of her lies. She saw blue lights, she met God, she lost God, she suffered, tormented, she "found her word" (OMG!). I could have given her a word to describe her (something similar to what she gave to Rome!): shite. Page by page of shite. But, Gilbert is rich and famous, men cried over her legs, women over her words, so what a hell? She is a smart American woman who knows what she wants and goes for it. God is another story, elsewhere, waiting for when time will come, simply to have a "word". In behalf of Lizabeth Gilbert, I apologies to India, to Mahabharata and Ramayana, Upanishads,to the true believers, who silently pray for the Earth, thinking: "forgive her, Lord, for she does not know what she does".

tonya_hp I've watched this so many times over years. It's been the first movie that would come to mind whenever I've felt down about anything, and the first movie I'd recommend watching for girls' nights or if a friend needed any sort of reassuring that things would turn out okay. Disclaimers: I've never reviewed a movie before, and do not identify as a hyper- feminist crazy person or a film buff. When I checked the reviews I was very surprised. Particularly interesting was the ever-growing list that claims that 50% of people will see Eat, Pray Love as happy journey to self discovery, while the other 50, the enlightened bunch, are appalled at the way it gives a hateful woman power to overturn the life of anybody she encounters, simply because she is "pretty and rich." If you are reading these reviews, and are in the camp that anticipates the deterioration of American society as linked to this sort of twisted female empowerment, chances are you have been discouraged from seeing this movie. If I had read them before ever watching it, I would have shut my screen as well. Don't. Give it a chance. While I can see why Liz would be condemned for her immaturity in her early 40's, this movie obviously doesn't attempt to blanket that at all. In fact, this is the whole point. It's giving a woman who should be at a point of self-awareness and mental clarity a second chance to create something without totally breaking the life, childless at least, of the man she married and just cannot seem to feel herself growing with. A rather far-fetched, idealistic tale, the point of this long romantic adventure, thick with detail great acting by ALL, is simple. She is talking about moving to expensive places for work from the very start. Her character wants adventure and "balance," and the life she has at the beginning, with the person she's convinced herself to "end up with" doesn't grant her that. Why not save everyone the pain and start over while she can? Why not be selfish if it's this productive, instead of continuing to poison the collective atmosphere- we only get one life, as far as we know, at least.She understands that she can't create happiness for anyone when she herself is unhappy, and we see that through until the very end. The cast list was beautifully chosen- anyone else as Liz would potentially have botched the role, but Julia Roberts executes it perfectly- she's impossible to dislike, EVEN here.So what, Italy is portrayed as clean and idealistic? Again, that is the point. The target audience would see it this way, and feel compelled to travel and explore and change and grow and thrive. This is not a movie for the happily married thirty-something. It's geared at people are are still trying to find a happy medium, a purpose and a "word." You won't like this movie if you're avoiding/don't feel the need to find reasons to question and better your life. I guess I'm one of the (lucky? unlucky?) 50% who still do.