Eat Pray Love

A newly divorced writer (Julia Roberts) embarks on a journey of self-discovery—to Italy for the food, India for the spiritual enlightenment, and Bali for “balance” and, finally, true love. Not having read Elizabeth Gilbert’s best-selling memoir, I was unprepared for the movie; is Gilbert really the selfish, shallow, immature narcissist we see here? The script by Jennifer Salt and director Ryan Murphy bristles with fortune-cookie banalities and self-help bromides while giving Gilbert meet-cutes with different people all over the world. Nice scenery, a high-end supporting cast (Viola Davis, Billy Crudup, James Franco, Richard Jenkins, Javier Bardem) and Roberts’ dazzling smile can’t disguise the vacuum at the movie’s center: a self-absorbed princess who dumps her husband to run off to Italy and eat.