Summer of the Soul: Warmth and Transformation in Eat, Pray, Love.

In Eat Pray Love, Elizabeth (Julia Roberts) discovers that she has always had problems in her romantic relationships. One day, she leaves everything behind: her husband, her job, her friends, and decides to live new experiences in different places for a whole year. She sets off to India, Italy, and Bali to find herself again on a great journey of self-discovery.

Eat Pray Love2010

I'm not a person who really likes the romance genre, I always think there are too many clichés involved, too many stories that don't really hold my attention, although I have some romantic films that I take to life and cry every time I watch them. Although I'm a fan of Julia Roberts and I've watched this movie Eat Pray Love a few times.

Elizabeth Gillbert is a woman who has everything society says about a perfect life: a career, a house and a husband. However, she is not satisfied with the life she leads, she feels that something is missing and decides to file for divorce and travel to discover herself. Before starting her journey around the world, she meets a theater actor, David Piccolo, who is a few years younger and so she cannot find a relationship that she feels comfortable with. After breaking up with her boyfriend, she travels to Italy and meets a woman who introduces her to a tutor who teaches her Italian. She spends her days enjoying every moment of her trip, visiting the most beautiful places in the country, eating the best food, learning the language and the incredible Italian gestures. It is an incredible part of the film, the way they show Rome is so beautiful, colorful, tasty and sunny, where she tastes the pleasure of the local cuisine. But anyway, she shows how she is an independent woman who knows how to enjoy the moments in life. From the beginning, she had planned to stay with the Italians for a while and then go to India.

India is definitely going through a sensational moment! All the spiritual power that this country has is divine and wonderful, and that is exactly what Elizabeth is doing. She decided to spend some time taking care of her spirit. She gives herself completely to this, dedicating all her time to temples, meditating, and having to lead a much simpler life than she was used to, praying and helping out in the local area. This is an important part of the film. When she was in New York, she said that she was feeling nothing, no passion, no enthusiasm, no faith, no emotion, absolutely nothing. This is one of the worst feelings that someone can have, when you simply stop feeling. Occasionally, we have days like that, at least I do. I know how horrible it is to feel empty. So, going to a place to find yourself, find your faith, and setting aside time for this is essential.

During the film, many catchphrases are thrown out that make us reflect. In the middle of a dialogue, a phrase that makes me pause and think, such as: “To get to the castle, you have to swim across the moat.”; “If there was suffering, it’s because you tried.”; “Look at the world through your heart, and then you will find God.”; “Learn to deal with loneliness. Learn to know loneliness. Get used to it, for the first time in your life.”

In India, Elizabeth was independent, taking time for herself and still helping other people in need, until she met a man named Felipe. At first, the two of them were together, he was also going through some problems, but at a moment when she felt pressured, he freaked out a lot! Suddenly he says the following sentence: "You have to decide now, do you love me or not?" They had just met, she was enjoying all this, the peace and tranquility she had found, and he wanted her to leave everything behind to be on an island with him?

Although the film ended in a way that I disapprove of, I really like the vibe of the locations. The film is very beautiful and gives the feeling of traveling with the protagonist through three countries and their respective cultures: the exuberance of Italy, the religiosity of India and the exoticism of Bali. The character's search for self-knowledge and inner balance is moving. After breaking up with two relationships, she feels guilty and first needs to forgive herself before giving herself another chance to love. The soundtrack and photography are beautiful and Julia Roberts gave her all to the role of the writer and is beautiful and mature as an actress. This is a film that should appeal mainly to women, but also to those who are sensitive.