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Eat Pray Love

Director: Ryan Murphy - Released October 7

Reviewed by Joshua Maule

24 Sep 2010

11:29am Friday, 24th September 2010  

Not to us, O LORD, not to us
but to your name be the glory,
because of your love and faithfulness.
- Psalm 115:1

If you are looking for evidence of the emptiness of self-made spirituality, look no further than the screen adaptation of Eat Pray Love. Based on the massively popular travel journalism book of the same title ("over seven million copies now in print," says the website), the 140-minute feature follows Elizabeth Gilbert (Julia Roberts) on her globe-trotting self-discovery journey through Italy, India and Bali. What emerges is a travelogue, where Gilbert's "spiritual" enlightenment is the main objective.

From eating pasta, to meditating, to seeking advice from a spiritual guru, to sleeping around, Gilbert believes everyone she meets is a teacher pointing her on her way.

But herein lies the crux. While purporting to search for meaning, in the end Gilbert's main purpose - in eating, praying and loving - is her own gratification. Her own fulfilment. Her own taste buds. Her own fun. And it quickly becomes apparent that her desire for the divine neatly resembles her desire for herself.

Depictions of the three main cultures are laden with cliché and disrespect. Gilbert uses them however she chooses for her own joy. The bad bits such as poverty are mostly ignored bar the moment she gives a tokenistic donation to a single mother in Bali to build a house. As Guardian film reviewer, Peter Bradshaw wrote in his satirical take: "Film patronises Italians, Indians, Indonesians... Check watch, groan, slump."

Given several million people bought the book, and Oprah Winfrey endorsed it, it's not outrageous to presume it's struck a nerve. People are hearing Gilbert. But why?

An opportunity for unbridled narcissism and self-fulfilment, sprinkled with a thin coat of icing sugar - masquerading as meaning - is attractive. Right? Do what you want and call it religion and you're done. Fed up with life? Change it. Sick of work? Stop and move to Bali. As long as you visit a guru and meditate then it's all OK.

From start to finish Eat Pray Love is transparent enough to see through. It provides an iPod religion: custom made for the individual. If everyone was like Gilbert, our world would be unliveable. Who would make the food and take all the orders?

"Not to us, O LORD," says the Psalmist, "not to us but to your name be the glory." Meaning can not come from within.