Movie Review: Eat Pray Love (a.k.a Finding the Purpose of Life)

Ah, finally I got back to my blog after several occupying days... It's like going back home sitting on a couch. Sipping hot coffee... (Hmm, I'm not saying this out of coffee addiction, in fact I don't drink that stuff at all... ;P)

Anyway, last Sunday was movie night! I never planned to go to theater actually. Its just one of those days that happen so quickly and you don't realize you've made a spontaneous decision. That odd 'spontaneous' day with 'unusual spontaneous' me (yup, I'm usually a planner and an 'organizer' kind of person), finally ends with me inside a theater with my family, sitting somewhere on the side of F row... No popcorn, because I'm already full of the 'afternoon snacks' (if I can call it a snack; is xiao long bao a snack when its eaten in the cloudy afternoon?;D)

Okay, so I'm going to stop talking about my life and let's talk about Liz Gilbert's life...(FYI, that is the name of a living person who wrote the novel, and the one who Julia Roberts starred in...).

The story revolves around the life of Liz Gilbert, in her middle age who has a serious lack in motivation after a divorce and an unsuccessful relationship afterwards with some actor. While she was in Bali, she met a fortune-teller named Ketut Liyer who tells her that she will had two marriages in her life. She saw the Ketut's prophecy soon to come true and finally set off on a journey to three countries, after a desperation in almost every aspect of her life.

And she ate that Gellato. On the street. Of Italy!! Ahhh...

The three countries she planned to visit for a one-year-trip is Italy, India, and Bali. Well, practically Bali is not a country, its just a province in Indonesia, a small island which often called 'Pulau Dewata', in English that means 'Island of Heaven'...

In Italy, she spends most of the time eating eating and eating, which is absurd because no matter what she ate, and how much she ate it, she still as slim as a catwalk model... In some reasons it bugged me, made me envy her, some part of me saying, "maybe she has a problem of eating disorder". Okay, I admit I'm the devil to think of such an opinion... *sigh*

Anyway, there she was on the screen, eating so much I think her stomach would blown up, all kinds of Italian cuisine, started from mouthwatering bolognaise, to a portion of pizza (the perfect sizing for that pizza would be: large...). Guess I haven't mention that I... LOVE. ITALIAN. FOOD. So when it comes to the 'eating scene', I shrank into my seat, sighing to myself "When is this 'Wisata Kuliner' show would be over?"... For some who doesn't know what 'Wisata Kuliner' is, it is a show where someone - usually a guy named Bondan Winarno - eats to experience the culinary tastes of Indonesia (sometimes in other countries too, when you're lucky enough to catch the episode...). And because of this too, I called the Italy scene as 'The Food Network Scene'.

So, after I repeatedly heard a low rumble from my stomach and much craving in the Italiano, finally its over, replaced by a completely different scene. The next Chapter of the movie is India, where Liz found out about praying. I won't say much about this one, because I think that this part of the film are pretty boring and I have no interest of it. Really. Its the most dragging part, and unfortunately the weakest point of the film. It doesn't spark an interest in me, to the story, the characters here, I don't feel for them. That's all I have to say.

Finally it comes to the final place she visits. Its in Bali, of course. With all its beauty beaches and warm weather. Now, I'm going to tell my biggest secret, I am an Indonesian, and I have NEVER visited Bali in my entire life... (Not that my life was that long enough... But I think its enough to make people in Indonesia stared at me in disbelief... "WHAATT??"). Yes I admit that was riddiculous, right? I have visited other countries and I haven't visited Bali... The place where all tourists go to when they visited my country... Yeah...

Ehm, so, she visited Bali and found her true love, a guy whose in real life called Javier Bardem... ;P and they live happily ever after... The End...

No no, its not the end of my review... Okay enough bragging, here is what I think. The movie is good, in terms of camera angles. The views of Italy, India, and Bali are beautifully captured, make me feel like I was there beside Liz Gilbert, experiencing those sceneries. I am not a reader of the novel so I cannot compare the novel to the movie, but I think everyone would agree that comparing books to movies are unfair, because in the movie you only have two hours and a half to explain and visualize the book, so its not a point I'm going to make even if I had read the book. For information, the novel is a New York Times Bestseller, and you know what that means... Nothing in this movie has reached that close to perfection the novel brings. The feelings, and details... Its just unfair to compare it. Let's keep it at that.

From the movie, I got an interesting 'ride' since the beginning. As I said previously, the problem with this movie is the India scene which kind of boring and therefore I think it is the weakest point of the film. Another problem is the duration of the movie. Almost two and a half hour for a drama/romance movie is too long. Either you ended up drooling on the theater's seat, or you checked into your watch every five minutes or so. Some girls who sat beside me even laugh on intense scenes, maybe they found the movie is too dragging, and finally seek something funny inside those scenes.

Overall, I will give this movie a 2 star out of 5. Because I will certainly not watching it again, regardless of the great casts and performances... Christine Hakim everyone! Its great to see her back on screen, especially alongside Julia Roberts... d(*0*)b The second reason would be the morale of the story. Although the duration is too long, still the morale is stated clearly. A woman who tried to find the purpose in her life and in the end she finally gets it. To know the full story, just watched the movie yourself, and be ready for beautiful places and sceneries as you enjoy the 'ride'.  

As for the music, I found the music is very soft and alluring. Although the music is simple, with only piano solo in some of the scenes, I already in love with Dario Marianelli's work in Pride and Prejudice and Atonement, so, I'm going to say that he's still one of the BEST composer of all time.

Last but not least, Thank you for the director of this film, who has made Bali exposed all over the world as beautiful and warmth, by warmth I meant the people of course. And I do hope after seeing this movie everybody will come to Bali (which includes me for that matter ;D)


Okay okay, last word, Attraversiamo! ^__^