The Bicycle Thief (1949) Review

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(More customer reviews)I first saw this movie as a student decades ago, and now seeing it all these years later on DVD, I'm amazed how well it holds up. It's a lesson in what can be done on the screen with so little; there's no budget here, largely amateur actors and a very simple plot. It's about an unemployed man, who gets a job offer that requires a bike, the sacrifice his family must make to get his bike out of hock, and what happens when the bike is stolen on the job. It's successful because I think the writers and director focus on some universal truths--about human nature, love, pride, survival and--yes--family values. It's disheartening to read some reviews that say: "I was bored," "It wasn't entertaining enough," or "Enough with the black & white." It's also disheartening to see reviews from people with no concept of this film's historical context. The poverty of post-WWII Europe produced a revolution in cinema, and this movie was one that redefined the medium's possibilities. I can't imagine someone not being moved by the dilemma faced by the lead character in this film. I do regret that this movie has not gotten a full "Criterion Collection" restoration, and I would have liked more "extras" on the DVD--like background information on the time the director and the Italian neo-realist movement. BTW, the more accurate translation of the Italian title is "Bicycle Thieves," which (after you see the movie) you must agree is more appropriate.

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A beautiful, simple story of a man in post-war Rome who needs his bicycle in order to work at his job. No sooner does he retrieve it from pawn, then it is stolen. The heartwrenching search teaches the man and his son much about the meaning of life and just how far we will go when pushed to the edge. Winner of a special Academy Award.

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Rome: The Complete First Season (2005) Review

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(More customer reviews)Rome, HBO's ambitious, and expensive, series revolving around the events leading up to the assassination of Julius Caesar (Ciaran Hinds), is a sight to behold. Created and filmed by a plethora of talented individuals (including legendary film maverick John Milius), Rome is brought to life with a fantastic set design that must be seen to be believed; it's as if the city is breathing. The story follows two of Caesar's soldiers (Ray Stevenson and Trainspotting's Kevin McKidd) who find themselves throughout many events in Roman history, beginning with inadvertantly rescuing Octavian (Max Pirkis), being lost at sea, assisting Cleopatra (in more than one way, this episode will leave you laughing) and Caesar's struggle with Pompey Magnus (Kenneth Cranham). Despite some historical inaccuracies, Rome is everything you'd come to expect from an HBO series: rich characterizations, an engrossing story, and a superbly assembled, large cast (including James Purefoy as Marc Antony, Kerry Condon, and Polly Walker as the scheming Atia), Rome is compulsively addictive viewing, made even more so by the climax and of the season finale, which will have you begging for more.

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(HBO Dramatic Series) Four hundred years after the founding of the Republic, Rome is the wealthiest city in the world, a cosmopolitan metropolis of one million people; epicenter of a sprawling empire. The Republic was founded on principles of shared power and fierce personal competition, never allowing one man to seize absolute control. But now, those foundations are crumbling, eaten away by corruption and excess. After eight years of war, two soldiers, Lucius Vorenus and Titus Pullo unwittingly become entwined in the historical events of ancient Rome. A serialized drama of love and betrayal, masters and slaves, husbands and wives, ROME chronicles a turbulent era that saw the death of the republic and the birth of an empire.DVD Features:FeaturetteOtherPhoto gallery

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Three Coins In the Fountain (1954) Review

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(More customer reviews)I must be honest--I bought "Three Coins in the Fountain" because I thought my wife would enjoy it. How right I was ! At the risk of sounding sexist, this 1954 production is definitely a movie aimed at women--and men wanting to impress women--it was probably a great "date flick" !
The plot is quite conventional, standard soap opera fare. Three young and single American women are employed as secretaries in Rome. They are played by Dorothy McGuire, Jean Peters, and--as "the new kid on the block"--Maggie McNamara. Of course, all three find romance, not to mention ever-changing wardrobes and lavish living accommodations. In 1954, secretaries must have made a bundle in Italy ! For gorgeous and seductive Ms. Peters, romance comes in the form of a ruggedly handsome Italian law student, Rossano Brazzi ( later to have Mitzi Gaynor swooning in "South Pacific" ). Young, naive Ms. McNamara attracts the attention of an Italian prince with a womanizing reputation
( Louis Jourdan, a poster boy for charm and sophistication ). She has to wait for much of the film, but Ms. McGuire is finally "noticed" by her stuffy, self-absorbed boss and best-selling author ( Clifton Webb, very badly cast as a romantic lead ). These relationships go through various predictable complications, with the steamy Peters/Brazzi pairing as the most realistic.
However, at this point, we should mention the real star of this film--Italy. Has that country ever been photographed more beautifully than in "Three Coins" ? This is one of the earliest Cinemascope productions, shot on location in colour--the views of Rome, the Italian countryside, and spectacular Venice are breath-taking. I agree with other positive technical reviews of this DVD--the film has been restored to its original glory, and this is a beautiful disc to own.
Of course, the film is still fifty years old, and dated in a number of ways. I still got caught up in it though because of the fabulous scenery and the three leading ladies are certainly attractive--I'm also sure that female viewers won't mind watching those two continental "hunks", Louis Jourdan and Rossano Brazzi !
The title song won an Oscar, and was a big hit for both Frank Sinatra--his version opens the film--and the Four Aces.
So--bottom line--a light, frothy confection from the fifties in a most beautiful package. There is one serious drawback--for us guys, this disc could become very expensive--my wife wants to spend our next holiday in Italy !

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A charming romantic comedy about three American roommates working in Italy who wish for the men of their dreams after throwing coins into Rome's magnificent Trevi Fountain.

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Under the Tuscan Sun (Widescreen Edition) (2003) Review

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(More customer reviews)What starts out as an Italian "Money Pit" with all the attendant broken pipes, crumbling walls and incompetent handymen makes a turn for the better about a third of the way through: a more emotionally centered and revealing movie,"Under the Tuscan Sun."
The luminescent Diane Lane stars as Frances, an intelligent, loving women with close and committed friends who finds herself in a situation that many people do: with a mate who has fallen out of love, wants a divorce as well as possession of a much loved and painstakingly renovated house, this one in San Francisco. After the divorce Frances goes to Tuscany on a lark, falls in love with a villa there, buys it and proceeds to renovate it. The villa then is the physical manifestation of the shedding of her old life and marriage and the hope for the renovation and rehabilitation of her love life as well as her life in general.
That she probably places too much faith in the physical to solve the emotional does not detract at all from the guts and hope that it takes to do so. And Lane is so psychically centered and open as Frances that you cannot help but be moved by her situation.
There are some silly plot lines and performances that I wish weren't, but with a central performance as attractive and genuinely loving and feminine as Lane's, "Under The Tuscan Sun" is as warm and inviting as bread just out of the oven.

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From the studio that brought you SWEET HOME ALABAMA comes the extraordinary romantic comedy starring Academy Award(R) nominee Diane Lane (2002 Best Actress, UNFAITHFUL). Based on the #1 New York Times best-selling book, UNDER THE TUSCAN SUN follows San Francisco writer Frances Mayes (Lane) to Italy as a good friend offers her a special gift -- 10 days in Tuscany. Once there, she is captivated by its beauty and warmth, and impulsively buys an aging, but very charming, villa. Fully embracing new friends and local color, she finds herself immersed in a life-changing adventure filled with enough unexpected surprises, laughter, friendship, and romance to restore her new home -- and her belief in second chances.

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I Am Love (2010) Review

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(More customer reviews)If you were somewhat skeptical of former Gucci fashion designer turned filmmaker Tom Ford's lush stylisations and emotional resonances in A Single Man, then you'll hardly be convinced by the latest film from Luca Guadagnino, an Italian film director who has worked previously on promotional advertisements for Fendi. In contrast to the stark minimalism of slow-cinema that is currently fashionable in art house cinema, the extraordinarily beautiful I Am Love, as the titles suggests, simply wallows in an excess of sensory and emotional states.
There's little about the subject that seems attractive, dealing as it does with the lives of an important rich aristocratic Recchi family from Milan, the film dwelling initially on the opulence of their lives, the exquisite furnishings of their family mansion, the elegance of their expensive clothing and the sumptuous extravagance of the haut-cuisine food they as they celebrate the birthday of the family patriarch, Edoardo. At the dinner-party however, the grandfather hands over the running of the successful international family business to his son Tancredi (Pippo Delbono) and his grandson Edoardo Jr. (Flavio Parenti), and although this rankles somewhat, there is clearly a family unity that holds them together and is wary of admitting outsiders.
Cracks are beginning to show however and it's not just in the realities of the family business trying to keeping up-to-date with the workings of the modern business world, but it's shown also in a number of remarkably subtle ways, all of them stemming from the opening dinner-party. Edo has been unaccountably beaten in a prestigious boating race by Antonio, the talented chef who has prepared the evening's meal, and there is a hesitancy about accepting his new girlfriend into the family; the daughter Elizabetta (Alba Rohrwacher) has broken tradition in the present she gives to her grandfather, suggesting that she is going to go her own direction in her studies and in her love life, going moreover against an alliance that she would be good for the family; but the biggest change that is to have profound consequences for the Recchi family occurs with their mother Emma (Tilda Swinton).
The suggestions made, there is however nothing subtle about how director goes about recounting the fall of the Recchi household, the subsequent delirious and tragic events depicted with all the emotional heft and complex layering of Italian grand opera (the florid minimalism of a John Adams score however giving it a much more modern flavour), with cinematic resonances that point to the Italian masters of Visconti and Antonioni. Guadagnino however has a few tricks and innovations of his own, finding a manner to cinematically depict intense sensory impressions and experiences that is unfashionably and almost embarrassingly uninhibited. I Am Love is an extraordinary film, an extraordinarily beautiful one, and one moreover that succeeds utterly in its creation of an interior emotional world as much as the external material world that it depicts. It's the clash between these two worlds then that is to prove the fatal to the Recchi family, and the viewer has no option but to be similarly swept along.

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I AM LOVE tells the story of the wealthy Recchi family, whose lives are undergoing sweeping changes. Eduardo Sr., the family patriarch, has decided to name a successor to the reins of his massive industrial company, and in so doing, surprises everyone by splitting power between his son Tancredi and grandson Edo. However, Edo dreams of opening a restaurant with his friend Antonio, a talented chef. At the heart of Tancredi's family is his wife, Emma (Tilda Swinton), a Russian immigrant who has adopted the culture of Milan. An adoring and attentive mother, Emma's existence is shocked to the core when she falls deeply in love with Antonio and pursues a passionate love affair that will change his family forever.

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Nine (2009) Review

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(More customer reviews)I am a little upset with people who are fans of musicals. There isn't enough product to satisfy our desire and when a very good example of this genre is released, we stay away in droves. I simply don't understand why "Nine", the new musical, not to be confused with "9", the recent animated film from Tim Burton, s getting pretty unanimously bad critical reviews. I don't understand why fans of the genre are staying away.
Directed by Rob Marshall ("Chicago"), "Nine" is an adaptation of a very successful Broadway musical adapted from the Fellini film "8 ½". The film contains some very good performances and some amazing vocals and dancing from actors I didn't know could sing or dance. Add to that a beautiful and romantic period setting and you have a film that is a fitting companion piece to "Chicago".
Are fans of this genre waiting for the next Gene Kelly or Fred Astaire? Is that why they are staying away? Do you secretly desire "An American in Paris II" or a remake of "Singin' In The Rain"? That won't happen (I pray to God). As we continue to evolve and our tastes become more modern, the genres we love have to adapt and change along with us. For a long period of time, the only musicals we could see on the big screen were animated. Many of these were great and provided an avenue for talented people. Then, Baz Luhrmann managed to convince 20th Century Fox to let him make "Moulin Rouge". "Chicago", "Mamma Mia", "Hairspray" and more than a few films that should be forgotten followed this. A lot of people didn't like "Moulin Rouge" because of the frantic visual style. I loved it. "Chicago" is a bit more traditional than "Moulin Rouge", allowing the viewer to get involved in the story and characters because they take a moment (every so often) to breath. Now Marshall follows this success with "Nine".
Rome, the 60s. Guido Contini (Daniel Day-Lewis), a very successful Italian film director is experiencing writer's block after two of his films have flopped. This is unfortunate because his longtime producer is practically forcing him to make his new film. They have a title, "Italia" and are convinced it will star Claudia Messina (Nicole Kidman), Contini's longtime muse. Even his confidant, and confessor, his longtime costume designer, Lilli (Judi Dench) knows he is having trouble, but she does her best to provide support and a nudge when needed. A set is in production on a huge soundstage at Cincecitta, but Guido is experiencing a midlife crisis and can't come up with anything to write about. When the pressure becomes too great, he runs off to a spa on the Italian peninsula and hides there, trying to escape everyone and everything. He calls his wife, Luisa (Marion Cotillard, "La Vie En Rose") and tells her he will be home in a few days. Then he calls his mistress, Carla (Penelope Cruz) and gets her installed in a nearby penzione. When his production team and producer show up at the spa, what was supposed to be rest quickly becomes a working holiday and continues to stress out the famous director. Instead, he begins to remember all of the women in his life and with each memory, comes a new musical number and an equally amusing performance by one of the ladies.
I really liked a lot about what "Nine" is trying to do. Unfortunately, I also think many of the things I like are also the same things keeping people away from the multiplex.
As Guido deals with his writer's block and all of the complications of his life, he begins to remember back to each of the important women in his life and their various influences in shaping who he has become. There are some references to Guido's history with women and the sheer number of sexual partners seems to be large, but there are certain women in his life who are important and he remembers each with fondness. As the memories flood back, Marshall begins to cut some of the most beautiful footage I have seen in a long time into the story, providing us with a biographical glimpse into the director's life. He remembers back to his childhood when he paid a loose woman to show off her private parts to a group of children. This is told through black and white footage and shows the boys running across an Italian beach. When the woman comes out of her hut, "Be Italian" begins and the story cuts back and forth from the footage at the beach to a full-blown musical number featuring singer Fergie (from the Black Eyed Peas) as Saraghina. As the musical number progresses, you begin to realize Saraghina and the many other women in the number are actually on the soundstage back in the studio in Rome, it's iconic roman arches ever present. Yet, the singers are sitting on wooden chairs and flinging sand around. It is a visually striking musical number and quickly establishes how the film will unfold.
Not only do we start to get a feeling for Guido's life leading up to this crisis, we also realize he is, in fact, remembering things that will eventually make it into the film he has to make next. His memories are showing him his next film, guiding him through the narrative before he writes it.
Later, when Carla (Cruz) arrives at the Spa, she sings the song "Guido, Guido, Guido"; cavorting around in an outfit Victoria's Secret would be smart to copy. Carla is deeply in love with Guido and dances using pink velvet ropes and silk.
Judi Dench is surprisingly good when her turn comes. As a major influence in Guido's life, he turns to her for support, guidance, a stern word when needed. She reveals a lot about her background as a fashion designer when she sings the song "Folies Bergere", about her early life designing costumes for the racy nightclub in Paris. Dancers in costumes reminiscent of the popular Parisian show dance around the same Roman arches.
Kate Hudson is also very good as Stephanie, a young American journalist in Rome writing about the director for a magazine. She follows Guido to the spa and flirts with him, the sexual tension increasing exponentially. This footage is intercut with Hudson and a slew of dancers performing "Cinema Italiano", which is, I believe, the one new number written for the film. The musical segment is a lot of fun, very fast paced and done as a tribute to the 60s. Hudson seems to be channeling some of her mom's early persona in the performance.
Marian Cotillard and Nicole Kidman are the two most personal female relationships in his life, so their numbers are more introspective and romantic.
Sophia Loren plays Mamma and it is great to see her on screen as Guido's conscience. But her musical number is least successful because she doesn't appear to be as good a singer or as comfortable singing. It is more of the "talking lyrically" type of song people generally do when they can't do a real musical number.
Overall, the musical numbers are very good. Will they be memorable enough to be remembered in a decade? Two? Three? Will Robert Osborne's clone talk about the film one day on Turner Movie Classics? I don't know. But they are fun to watch.
This is one of those films set in a very specific place where everyone has a different accent. This aspect of the film reminded me a bit of the big budget films produced in the late 50s and early 60s, the type filled with an International cast to ensure box office success around the world. Daniel Day Lewis' Italian accent is impressive and even more impressive, he sings in the accent. Nicole Kidman does an okay job playing the Italian movie star. Marian Cotillard restrains her French accent and seems to be going for a more American sound. Penelope Cruz is just herself. Strangely, Judi Dench doesn't attempt any accent other than her normal voice and her character is French. Altogether, a bit of a strange hodgepodge. I guess it's better for some to not even attempt an accent if they can't do one. Hearing the actor's normal voice helps you forget they should have an accent. If they did a bad one, you'd never hear past it.
Daniel Day Lewis is very good as Guido. At every moment, you can see and feel the world crashing in on him. Forced to attend a news conference to announce the new film, he tries to joke, to flirt, to laugh, all in an effort to hide the fact he hasn't written one word of the script yet. He basically has no idea what the new film should be about. When members of the press get close to unveiling the truth, he flees to the spa.
When he is presented with the opportunity to make a change in life, he seems close to taking these leaps, but ultimately the change seems to hard for him and he reverts back to normal. This only serves to drive his crisis.
I think it is brave of Day-Lewis to take on this role. We have never seen him sing or dance before and he does a good job with the singing. When he breaks out into song, he retains his accent, never letting it falter.
Either his dancing wasn't up to the task, or his musical numbers just weren't designed to involve elaborate dance moves. His dancing resembles what kids would do on a jungle gym on the playground. Hoe holds onto bars and swings around them in large, lazy circles and slides his feet around.
The film is set in Italy in the mid 60s. This gives the film a beautiful look; everything appears romantic and almost fantasy like.
If you're a fan of the genre, I hope you will make an effort to see this film. If we don't support these works, Hollywood will stop making them. I can already tell you the names of two producers who will most likely never produce another musical again.

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A vibrant and provocative musical filled with love, lust, passion and glamour. A world famous film director reaches a creative and personal crisis of epic proportion, while balancing numerous women in his life. With its incredible all-star cast, amazing performances, and stunning visuals, this razzle-dazzle extravaganza will make you long to BE ITALIAN.

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When In Rome (2010) Review

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(More customer reviews)I love the people who trash romantic comedies that deliver exactly what you expect a romantic comedy to deliver. "When in Rome" is nothing more and nothing less than a cookie cutter chick flick about romance, finding love, a happy ending, with some jokes thrown in to make you laugh. I enjoyed the movie and for the fee of renting it on demand, felt it was well worth the 91 minutes of run time, not including previews of course. Please people, who doesn't think that Kristen Bell is cute and even my girlfriend perks up a little when Josh Duhamel comes on screen.
Kristen Bell plays a working woman who finds her job much more rewarding than any relationship she can find. It doesn't mean she isn't sad nothing has worked out with the men in her life. It just means that she can feel rewarded standing on her own two feet. Hello, am I connecting with the female population yet? She is a lead curator at the Guggenheim museum and just when she concedes to living a life of solitaire, her sister decides to get married and things go a little haywire. So off to Rome she flies for a weekend of family hell.
While in the romantic city she picks a few coins out of a fountain and unknowingly captures the hearts of some lucky dudes who had previously dropped them in the mysterious fountain. While the magic is working its way towards insanity she meets Josh Duhamel who happens to actually like her. The two of them make a great pair. As corny as the scene is with breaking the vase and short circuiting the electricity, it actually made me laugh. Without giving too much away, the commercials do that all too well already, I will say that several scenes had me laughing pretty loud at times. It really was a funny movie, even if it was a little trite and predictable.
In my book Dax Shepard was absolutely hilarious with his washboard stomach. He spent most of the movie with his shirt off as he looked at himself almost as much as he sat admiring Kristen Bell. How this guy is not cast in more movies is beyond me, but we can continue to enjoy his work next season in Parenthood.
Anyway, I enjoyed the movie. If you go in expecting a nice romantic comedy with several funny scenes you will leave happy. It isn't anything ground breaking and there is no thought involved. It is simply 91 minutes of mindless entertainment where everything works out in the end. What more can you ask from a movie of this nature. In my book it delivered, so have a few laughs and move on to the next one. Hollywood has been making these since the moving picture was invented, and it will continue as long as people buy the tickets to see them. I for one think it was adequately worth the price.

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An ambitious young New Yorker (Kristen Bell), disillusioned with romance, takes a whirlwind trip to Rome where she defiantly plucks magic coins from a fountain of love, inexplicably igniting the passion of those who threw them in: a sausage magnate (Danny DeVito), a street magician (John Heder), an adoring painter (Will Arnet) and a self-admiring model (Dax Shepard). But when a charming reporter (Josh Duhamel) pursues her with equal zest, how will she know if his love is the real thing?

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Letters to Juliet (2010) Review

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(More customer reviews)I went into "Letters to Juliet" wondering if I was paying too much to see a movie that is pretty much told in the two-minute trailer.
I ended up enjoying every minute of it
Sophie goes to Verona with her fiancé. Victor becomes distracted by everything that might help his new restaurant, so she finds a way to make the best of her free time. Sophie discovers a group of women who reply to letters left for the doomed heroine of William Shakespeare's classic love story.
The young woman finds a fifty-year-old letter and writes to the woman, who shows up with her uptight grandson less than a week later. The three of them set off to find the man Claire left behind.
The story is slightly predictable, but solid. The audience feels what the characters feel...whether it is Sophie's frustration toward Victor, Charlie's uncertainty about Sophie's motives, or the humor they find when each "Lorenzo" shows a very unique personality.
And the soundtrack fits perfectly.
After the movie, I initially thought the PG rating was a little harsh. Then I remembered the content that is inappropriate for children.
PG: (1) A scene where extras touch the breast of a statue; (2) An obscene gesture; (3) Alcohol use; and (4) A thematic element that will go over most viewer's heads.
This is the best romantic comedy that I have seen this year.

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In Verona, Italy the beautiful city where Romeo first met Juliet there is a place where the heartbroken leave notes asking Juliet for her help. It s there that aspiring writer Sophie finds a 50-year-old letter that will change her life forever. As she sets off on a romantic journey of the heart with the letter's author, Claire, now a grandmother, and her handsome grandson, all three will discover that sometimes the greatest love story ever told is your own.DVD Features:Audio Commentary with Amanda Seyfried and Director Gary Winick; Deleted and Extended Scenes; The Making of Letters to Juliet: In Italia; A Courtyard in Verona

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Eat Pray Love (2010) Review

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(More customer reviews)Let me preface this by mentioning I haven't read the book, though I've been meaning to, and after seeing the film first, I can only hope the book form is better. As a travel buff, I've been looking forward to watching this film, and I knew from the get-go that this would be a film about a woman's ennui and unfulfilled life. Yes, I know, first world problems--cue roll of the eyes. But I think many people can relate to the emptiness that pervades life on occasion.
That being said, even as someone sympathetic to this kind of plight, I found the character Liz to be utterly insufferable and a practically impossible woman to relate to. The film has Liz, lying in bed with her husband, looking bored and lonely. She gets out of the bed she shares with her husband to go downstairs to literally kneel down and ask for God's help for the first time, sobbing in the room of her multi-million dollar home. The problem with this entire premise is that her emptiness isn't presented in a way that is relatable to the audience. With film, the exercise is to convey what is inside by external means; the audience cannot magically divine what is going on with the characters. I understand what the INTENT was: her husband doesn't have the travel bug; her husband has ideas but doesn't stick to a single one to make it his passion; her husband doesn't share her curiosity of life, an inclination for what is MORE; she has it all but is still unsatisfied--there's no spark, no excitement. But for me these were not conveyed convincingly. Instead, we have Julia Roberts (playing Julia Roberts) crying, staring at the wall, yelling, acting like an overgrown brat with an alarming sense of entitlement. She purports to look within, but she doesn't. She turns her rage to those around her, and that's a fatal flaw in the film from which it never recovers.
The premise is very promising and intriguing: woman with all the trappings of life searches for more meaning in life by empowering herself--after all, it is often touted that money cannot buy happiness, and there are situations in real life where people who don't have much are happier than those with a lot (more money, more problems). Depression, for example, doesn't skip a person just because he or she is wealthy. Money and material goods are clearly not guaranteed keys to happiness and fulfillment. But instead of taking the opportunity to lay that foundation and build upon this premise, the filmmakers seem to skip it altogether in favor of pretty travel shots, apparently unable to take on the storytelling task. Is it difficult, especially in this economy, to make a film about the dissatisfaction and existential angst of a well-off woman? Yes. But it is not impossible, and if they are going to make a film based on this premise, they better well try to sway the audience. Unfortunately, they seem to just rely on Julia Roberts' "America's Sweetheart" status to replace effective narrative. The idea itself is interesting; the execution is the problem (most people can relate to the experience of seeing a fantastic trailer for a film or reading a film summary and getting excited, only to be disappointed after seeing the actual film).
In a meeting with the lawyers and her husband, Liz glares at her husband with the fire of a thousand suns, resenting him for being, well, him. Rightfully, her husband frustratingly informs her that she never sat him down to tell him what's wrong, never gave him a chance to try to fix it if she had such a problem in the marriage. The audience really only sees what ANNOYS her (e.g., he wants to do a postgraduate degree, he doesn't want to go to Aruba). Are these "flaws" big enough for her to just walk out one day? At least this warrants a serious sit-down talk about each of their goals and feelings, right? No. Liz doesn't feel connected to him, and instead of sitting down like adults, she decides to leave, cold turkey, because if you don't get what you want out of life, the lesson is you must drop all your problems and run. It is understandable for someone to want to end a marriage if she is unhappy, but to just cut it off abruptly without a serious discussion (and assuming abuse or infidelity haven't occurred, which, in this film, they haven't) is unreasonable and paints the person as a spoiled brat who never learned how to navigate life in an adult world. This is a bad start to a film...an unsympathetic protagonist. Oh, God, how many more minutes do we have to spend with this woman? Did she really just leave her husband because some medicine man in Bali six months before told her one of her marriages would be short? Really? How gullible are you, Liz? The filmmaker really missed out on capitalizing on one genuine moment in the film -- her husband, in the elevator after the meeting with the lawyers, looking truly broken by his wife's abrupt abandonment. Do we get to explore her need to do this in spite of her husband's deep love for her? No, we get Liz's three-second look at his broken figure before she decides to run abroad an cavort with strangers who are meant to fix all her problems.
Throughout the film, Liz makes no real decisions; rather, she allows others to do the thinking for her, which makes for tiresome viewing. The writing and direction are aimless and sloppy. Far too much of the film is spent on her romance with a struggling actor, David (James Franco), who is more of a caricature than someone along the road who truly enlightens Liz and helps her on her journey. He's young. He's handsome. He follows an Indian guru (shrine adorning his apartment), sounds like a fortune cookie, and is a complete poser. He states he has never been to India, but he wants to one day, and spends his day looking sexily forlorn, a tortured soul, when, in fact, he's just like those wannabe Goths who shop at Hot Topic (except he's the hippie version). One day, he wakes up to find half of his bed empty. Where's Liz? She has moved herself to the floor beside the bed, looking like someone just killed her puppy. Again, she doesn't talk about the problem. She just moved her bed to the floor like a petulant child because, again, as with her husband, she's unfulfilled and wants to break up for no discernible reason. Okay, maybe Prozac is in order?
We are meant to take away from this romance the idea that David inspired Liz's trip to India. After all, she never would have known about that guru if it weren't for this poser. Get it, audience? Each person she meets is like a clue to the next spot on the treasure map. Get it? Except the character of David is so hastily written and lazily portrayed that the impact of his influence is negligible (seriously, James Franco looked like he phoned-in his scenes, and even he admitted that he knows the film is terrible and that he only did this film to have the experience of working with Julia Roberts).
The Italy chapter of the film is the most enjoyable, simply because it plays like a fun travelogue -- food porn, fun people, pretty sights. Here, we get a little break from Liz's overbearing personality. We meet some other characters who welcome Liz with open arms, and there are beautiful shots of quaint cafes and restaurants, plates of delicious food, and beautiful cityscapes. For once, we get to see Liz just ENJOYING herself without lashing out, and for a moment the audience can forget Liz as Liz; she's just an American enjoying Italy like any tourist would, looking at Italy with new eyes.
I expected the film to escalate and become even more profound as we head to India, but the narrative takes a serious and boring dip here. You know all the foodcentric tie-ins in the promotion of this movie? It ends with Italy, and it is understandable, seeing that Italy is the "eat" of the triumvirate, but since the spirituality aspects of India and Bali are so clumsily portrayed that one cannot help but feel cheated by the rest of the film. Okay, if we can't have genuine spirituality, at least show how decadent the other places are. There's more to India and Bali than ashrams and huts. It's as if the writers and filmmaker didn't know what to do about India. "Hm, what's India known for? Gods! And poor people. Okay, this part of the film will be about Gods and poor people. It'll be like a spiritual thang." So we have Liz living in an ashram, cleaning and doing practically nothing, and this is where she meets a Texan named Richard, played by the amazing Richard Jenkins, the highlight of the film. Though his character is paper-thin, Jenkins is so gifted and nuanced in his acting that he's able to flesh out a full character out of practically nothing. He's like your favorite uncle who wise-cracks and kicks you in the seat of your pants once in a while to set you straight. It is too bad that his character disappears rather quickly, which deflates the rest of the film. The writers try to flesh out India by introducing a 17-year-old girl forced into an arranged marriage (a heavy-handed parallel to Liz's own marriage, complete with flashbacks), but by then it is too late. Chapter 2 is already dead in the water. There's no spiritual enlightenment, just a disrespectful fast food approach to prayer and meditation. You just sit quietly, cross your legs, close your eyes, and spread your arms out. That's all, folks.
The film then skips abruptly to Bali, as if it did all it could do in India. Here we have the return of the toothless guru, who, like the Franco character, speaks like a fortune cookie and appears more like a stereotype more than anything else. Liz refers to him as "Yoda." He's quirky, speaks with an accent, wears a sarong, and reads your palm...OF COURSE he's enlightened! He's from Bali! He's infused with magic! All the houses have no walls. It's really weird here! When the quirkiness of Bali runs thin, it's time to introduce Felipe (Javier Bardem), an affectionate grizzly...Read more›

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Liz Gilbert (Julia Roberts) is a modern woman on a quest to marvel at and travel the world while rediscovering and reconnecting with her true inner self in Eat Pray Love. At a crossroads after a divorce, Gilbert takes a year-long sabbatical from her job and steps uncharacteristically out of her comfort zone, risking everything to change her life. In her wondrous and exotic travels, she experiences the simple pleasure of nourishment by eating in Italy; the power of prayer in India, and, finally and unexpectedly, the inner peace and balance of love in Bali. Based on an inspiring true story, Eat Pray Love proves that there really is more than one way to let yourself go and see the world.

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