A more appropriate title for this film might have been Eat Pray Love Sleep, and sleep is what I wanted to do most during this movie's obnoxiously long running time. I don't want to come across as the typical insensitive male type here. I know I'm not Eat Pray Love's target demographic, but seriously! Couldn't the film makers have delivered the exact same message in ninety minutes (in short, the message is this; everyone needs to find the right balance in their life)? At nearly two hours and twenty minutes, Eat Pray Love is a slog. Based on the popular novel, this film adaptation features Julia Roberts as Liz Gilbert, a writer whom--after ending a supposed unhappy marriage--decides it's time to go on a journey of self discovery. So, she drops everything and spends a year traveling through Italy, India, and Bali.

Roberts is a terrific actress and she has some nice moments here, but for whatever reason, very little in this movie feels authentic and the majority of the characters Gilbert comes into contact with (played by the likes of James Franco, Richard Jenkins, Billy Crudup, and Javier Bardem) feel like virtual after thoughts. And it's by no fault of the stunning talent on display. Each performer gives it their all, but the majority of these characters make such seemingly brief appearances and are so painfully underdeveloped, that it's very difficult to view them as real people. But then, that's all by design because this is Liz's story. Her "rite of passage" or "journey" if you will. So then, it probably didn't help much that Gilbert is less engaging and likable than many of the various, slighted individuals she comes in contact with throughout the movie. Perhaps that's my real issue with the Eat Pray Love. I just didn't relate or connect to what was going on. And all that was left, were the breathtaking locations and the mouth watering food, both of which were captured to much stronger affect in the generic but mercifully shorter Letters to Juliet.

Grade: C