Eat Pray LoveMovie Reviews

Poster art for "Eat, Pray, Love."

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So-so
Avg. Critic Score: 50 out of 100 Mixed or average reviews Metascore® based on all critic reviews
Information for Parents:
14 OK for kids 14+
Read Common Sense Media review

Critic scores range from 0 to 100, with higher scores indicating more favorable reviews.

  • 75
    San Francisco Chronicle | Mick LaSalle

    It is 140 minutes long and repetitious beyond belief. Yet for all its weaknesses - unconscious contradictions, travelogue simplicity and mix-and-match spirituality - Eat Pray Love is, like its central character, on a genuine quest. Read full review

  • 70
    The New York Times | A.O. Scott

    The film offers an easygoing and generous blend of wish fulfillment, vicarious luxury, wry humor and spiritual uplift, with a star, Julia Roberts, who elicits both envy and empathy. Read full review

  • 70
    Los Angeles Times | Betsy Sharkey

    If there is one constant in Eat Pray Love, the imperfect yet beautifully rendered adaptation of Elizabeth Gilbert's memoir on a year of heartbreak and healing starring Julia Roberts - it is this: There will be tears. Read full review

  • 63
    Washington Post | Ann Hornaday

    Eat Pray Love finally settles into its own cinematic destiny as an attractive escapist love story, in which the romance is more with the I than with the guy. Read full review

  • 58
    Entertainment Weekly | Lisa Schwarzbaum

    If only Roberts' warmth, coupled with Javier Bardem's scruffy sexiness as Felipe, were enough to compensate for the folded-map flatness of this production. Read full review

  • 50
    The Hollywood Reporter | Kirk Honeycutt

    The film never ventures, even once, into a situation that does not reek of comfy familiarity. Read full review

  • 50
    USA Today | Claudia Puig

    The whole journey feels like a rich girl gone slumming. And for those of us along for the ride, it's a bit of a slog. Read full review

  • 50
    Variety | Justin Chang

    Director Ryan Murphy's superficial take on Elizabeth Gilbert's phenomenally successful memoir is an exotic junk-food buffet that offers few lasting pleasures or surprises, let alone epiphanies. Read full review

  • 50
    Chicago Sun-Times | Roger Ebert

    Shameless wish-fulfillment, a Harlequin novel crossed with a mystic travelogue, and it mercifully reverses the life chronology of many people, which is Love Pray Eat. Read full review

  • 25
    Rolling Stone | Peter Travers

    The movie left me with the feeling of being trapped with a person of privilege who won't stop with the whine whine whine. Read full review

View more reviews for Eat Pray Love on Metacritic

Information for Parents
Common Sense Media says OK for kids 14+ Find-your-bliss film appeals but raises questions, too.
What Parents Need to Know Parents need to know that this romantic drama based on the best-selling memoir by Elizabeth Gilbert examines what happens when a woman walks away from the life (and husband) she knows to travel the world in search of meaning, balance, and joy. That’s fairly heavy material for tweens, which is part of why this movie is more age-appropriate for teens and adults, who will be better able to appreciate the movie's life lessons. Expect some discussions about sex, celibacy, and relationships; a few glimpses of a naked male butt; and some swearing (including "s--t" and one "motherf---er") and drinking (including one scene in which a character gets quite drunk).
  • Families can talk about the movie's messages. Who do you think it's trying to reach? What is it saying to that audience?
  • Liz finds her bliss through a complete change in scenery, literally and figuratively. How realistic is this option for most people? What do you think would have happened if she hadn't been able to escape?
  • What eventually persuades Liz to leave her husband? Is her struggle relatable? Believable?
The good stuff
  • message true3 Positive messages: The movie suggests that when you find yourself living a life that turns out to not be what you wanted or dreamed of, it’s time to reboot, even if that means a complete overhaul. Yes, feelings will get hurt, and the pain may last for months or even years. But the risk is worth it, the movie says, to find happiness.
  • rolemodels true2 Positive role models: Liz is lost in the beginning of the movie. She doesn’t like the life she has, and she doesn’t know how to get the one she wants. She opts to take big risks to seek wisdom and joy, which is admirable. But there are casualties in her search for enlightenment.
What to watch for
  • violence false0 Violence: Not an issue
  • sex false2 Sex: Couples kiss tenderly. Lots of flirtation, some references to “sexy time,” and talk about a woman's need to end her self-prescribed celibacy. In one scene, a man strips down and asks the main character to go skinny dipping -- viewers see his bare backside a couple of times.
  • language false3 Language: Words used include "s--t," "screw," "ass," “goddamn," "hell," "damn," "oh my God," and “bulls--," plus one “motherf---er.”
  • consumerism false1 Consumerism: Not many labels, but the book and the movie have encouraged many Eat Pray Love-inspired product tie-ins
  • drugsalcoholtobacco false2 Drinking, drugs and smoking: Some social drinking at parties, bars, and restaurants. A woman gets drunk at a a party and suffers a huge hangover the morning after. Some references in casual conversation to Xanax and meth.
An independent nonprofit dedicated to providing families the information they need to help kids thrive in a world of media and technology. © Common Sense Media Inc. 2010. All rights reserved.

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Touch an elephant, achieve enlightenment. Read full review See Dave White's on MOVIENAME on Movies.com

Jen Yamato

2.0

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Eat, Pray, Love, Barf Read full review See Dave Jen Yamato's on MOVIENAME on Movies.com

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