Eat Pray Love

You might know Eat Pray Love as the bestselling novel from Elizabeth Gilbert, but in the hands of those geniuses out in Hollywood, it becomes the most luscious movie in all of the land.

Julia Roberts stars as Liz - a writer who is trying to figure out her life. She's not happy being married to Stephen (Billy Crudup) anymore. She's not happy dating the 28-year old bohemian actor David (James Franco). She can't even figure out what her next book will be about (Oh, the angst of the upper middle class intelligentsia of Manhattan).

Without any reason to stick around Manhattan, Liz decides she wants to spend a year finding herself in Italy, India and Bali (which is better than my year finding myself in Dupont Circle, Pentagon City and Chevy Chase).

What will Liz find?

Eat Pray Love is one of those movies where you know exactly what you are going to get, kinda like comfort food for your movie going soul. Co-writer/Director Ryan Murphy knows what you want and why you bought a ticket in the first place.

You have Julia Roberts and her magnetic, magnificent smile lighting up the screen.

You get to see the breathtaking, mystical scenery as our heroine makes her way through Italy, India and Bali.

And the food. Oh, the food that looks so delicious even Chef Gordon Ramsay will cry with joy.

Along with co-writer Jennifer Salt, Murphy makes Eat Pray Love too long as this journey of self-discovery becomes a mediocre slog at times. The movie benefits from the melodious prose taken from Gilbert's book, but, at other times, you get the sense you are waiting for something to happen, and nothing will. Luckily, Roberts keeps you awake.

She isn't going to deliver some Meryl Streep chameleon performance, but you do get that laugh, the steely resolve delivered with tears streaming down her face and soulful eyes every guy in the theater wants to look into. It's a Julia Roberts performance through and through, so either love it or hate it, but don't say you weren't warned.

Let's not forget the boys!

Oscar nominee Richard Jenkins steals the show as the bombastic Texan, Richard, who has the most emotional speech in the entire movie. Sure, he starts off with the hilarious bumper sticker statements that make you laugh, but Jenkins is here for that big moment where all of the bravado is stripped away from Richard, and we can't help but feel the pain, loss and heartache flowing through the actor's voice and body.

Then, we have Javier Bardem as Felipe setting hearts aflutter as the most charming man on the planet, and reminding me that I want to be a sexy, smoldering Spanish dude when I grow up. Yes, he's playing the romantic daydream fantasy of women everywhere, but the actor doesn't allow Felipe to become insufferable.

I wish the Italians in the movie weren't so stereotypical and buffoonish, but this one will put a smile on your face, and compel you to invade every Italian restaurant within a ½ mile of the theater, so it can't be that bad.

Eat Pray Love is rated PG-13 for brief strong language, some sexual references and male rear nudity.