The interplay between the characters is pretty tall cotton, and does deserve some kudos. It would be helpful when renting this one from Netflix to keep a score card (no pun intended) or a pad of paper handy to keep track of who's doing what to whom, however. Like a Grande Turismo Omoligato, this has more switchbacks than the Bayshore Freeway, so pay close attention. My "B.W." had to nudge my mind from time to time, ‘cause she's more attuned to what approximates a "chick flick" than I; Rest assured though, this is more than just "one of those"-it does have some merit, if only in watching Baldwin and Streep interact-hey, they be professionals; The rest of the cast is so young...and Ms. Lake Bell is-well-you make up your mind. I thought she most resembled a tall lizard.The film does excel in getting the message across that, hey, human relationships are hard! Perfectly attuning one's wants, desires, and needs 100% of the time is almost a fairy tale; but when it does happen, it's damn hard to snuff out and ignore. The ending? I'm not gonna tell you, but one gets the feeling that the film is autobiographical. At the urging of friend Orville Redenbacher here at Larchwood Path Cinema, I'm gonna be generous and give this one a 6.0 out of 10. Now...don't get up outa your good seats while we rack up this second number-it's the first time in awhile that my "B.W." and I actually saddled up the Red Rocket and headed over to the cinema in Longview to see a movie, so that's significant!
"Love, Eat, Pray" (2010) is the latest showcase for the talented Texan we know as Julia Roberts. Her presence nearly guarantees a good film, much as Streep does in her films.
Based on a fiction work by Elizabeth Gilbert, the basic story is of one young woman's frustration with her marriage; At 31, she wakes up and realizes her life (according to her) is going nowhere; She sets out on a picaresque journey to "find herself". Ah, me-now there's a twist on an old theme! The only real criticism this writer would levy against this Julia Roberts movie is that it sets up very slow......the first half-hour to one hour is way too concerned with the initial story arc. I won't be as cruel as on critic who claimed that watching it was like sitting in a lukewarm bath tub for two hours. Once our heroine zips off to Italy (the first of three locales she plans to visit in her quest for self-knowledge) and meets some persons of kindred spirit, the story turns quite pleasant, though predictable. She first turns to food for comfort, along with her friends. Liz has a great talent for making friends fast, in any place she sets her feet. Same goes with her next stop, in poverty-stricken Calcutta, where she seeks a guru in an ashram and winds up scrubbing floors in the temple as part of her "self-discovery" process. In her third quest she finds herself in Bali (how does one get to Bali from India? Hmmmmmmmmm).
She "enrolls" herself with perhaps the most fascinating character of the whole film, Kittul the mystic, who helps her see her inner peace and control her strivings. Along the way, her new persona causes her to come out of her selfish self and serve others who have even basic needs. She arranges through friends back in New York to raise $18,000 so that a single mother in India that she has befriended can have a home built for herself and her three year old precocious daughter.
It was nice to see the other side of actor Javier Bardem ( he plays a sadistic maniac in "No Country For Old Men") as he plays Liz's eventual love interest; They meet when Javier Bardem's character is changing a cassette tape in his Jeep, and runs the bicycling Liz off the road. Though himself (seems like everybody Liz meets has suffered through at least one bad marriage or match) quite charming and the father of three grown boys, he courts Liz very pleasantly. Eventually a choice is forced, and Liz at first rejects his amorous advances. I'll tell you no more, in case you plan to trundle over to your local cinema, and I hope you do, if you like feel-good films, which this one is, despite what I call the "Moses Syndrome"-that is, wandering about in the desert for an extended period of time before being "saved"-by a character, a line, a scene, whatever. Julia is at her best in this one, and that's saying something, when one considers this Austin native's acting resume.
Namaste! Steve H Kehoe
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