“I think I deserve something beautiful.”
― Elizabeth Gilbert, Eat, Pray, Love
Journey- the best metaphor for the value of our lives, has a tendency to provide us with what we need rather than what we want. When we acknowledge it's significance, we then embrace our experiences as a movement towards our transformation and wholeness. We are in one shot journey towards a deeper sense of meaning and purpose, a constant search for ways to establish genuine connection with people that we love, and a warmer feedback to our world — both its misfortunes and its bliss. Our faith, the things and people that we value in life , provide the blueprint for the type of life that we run into. A point of personal desolation reveals that our worth and values are misplaced and that we find ourselves deserted on the wrong path.
When personal and spiritual growth has lost its way, we will continue to experience discontentment.
Life Journey, Quest for Self-Love and Pilgrimage all of these elements characterize Elizabeth Gilbert's successful memoir.
The film Eat Pray Love according to Wikipedia is a 2010 American biographical romantic movie starring Julia Roberts as Elizabeth Gilbert, based on Gilbert's 2006 memoir of the same title. Ryan Murphy co-wrote and directed the movie, which was released in U.S August 2010. It received mixed reviews from movie critics, but was proclaimed a financial success, grossing $204.6 million worldwide with a $60 million budget. The movie highlighted three significant parts- Italy, India, and Bali. Gilbert's memoir invites its viewers to be engrossed with a life of indecision and uncertainty. The film displayed the courage not to give in to a conventional story arc, thereby making it an ideal representation of real life.
A tall blond , Liz Gilbert (Julia Roberts in a refined performance) a successful journalist from New York who ditches a failing marriage from Stephen (Billy Crudup) and a toxic love affair with David (James Franco) to spend a year living in Italy, India and Bali seeking to find the balance of her mind, body and spirit. During this journey, great-looking men are platooned at her, and Ketut (Hadi Subiyanto) an Indonesian medicine man, reminded her of who she is and what she can do to transform her life. Liz decides to throw away her fears aside and take a year abroad spending four months each in Italy, India, and Bali. She decides she wants to go someplace where she can "marvel at something."
There are criticisms surrounding the film that it failed to deliver the spiritual and emotional weight the book was able to portray however I wrote this article to give my praise to the film and not hate it. I was captivated with how the film focused on the value of travelling and the significance of spiritual journey which I too want to experience in the future. For me this idea alone resonates an enlightening true tale of the journey to self transformation.
The movie was refreshing in a sense that it shifted the usual paradigm of women expected to pursue men. In a society where misogyny is evident, the film was able to showcase the possibility of women pursuing all kinds of travel and adventures. I liked how the heroine was fixated on self-care and spiritual prowess rather than just aiming to end a story with a happy ever after theme- where unconditional commitment of matrimony was often expected for women to aspire on. I admired her courage to stand true to her fulfillment — that her inner happiness can only be achieved with the completion of her identity.
A film that highlights a woman’s autonomy, her creativity, her desire for something other than being a bride to the altar.
The scarcity of films like this helps gratify my appeal and interest for stories revolving around female leads searching for self-discovery as the unwavering central focus.
The movie adaptation of Eat, Pray, Love may not be as deep or as fascinating as Elizabeth Gilbert's book but it does give many more people the possibility to experience the reward of her transcendent journey and the life changing transformations that are possible on such a quest. What I also find fascinating with the film is how it brought out realization that the love that Gilbert found is a love that reexamines how she exists in relationship and how she does so without leaving herself out of the frame. It's a complicated balance to pursue but, for the most part, Eat Pray Love manages to find it.
