Elizabeth Gilbert (Julia Roberts) has met a medicine man, Ketut Liyer (Hadi Subiyanto), who has given her a prophecy that she will lose all her money, be in two marriages, and comeback to live in Bali for a few months. Not knowing if any of it is true Liz calls her marriage off with Stephen (Billy Crudup) because she isn’t happy. She meets David Piccolo (James Franco) and decides that he isn’t what she needs. She leaves everything behind and flies out to Italy, India, and Bali in search of balance and happiness that she has been looking for in her life.

The film is based on a book by Elizabeth Gilbert and has been adapted with a screenplay by Ryan Murphy and Jennifer Salt. The film is directed by Ryan Murphy. Eat Pray Love tells the story of a woman looking to find herself by exploring the world in search of something that will bring her peace. Along her journey she finds new people that like her are in a path to self discovery and healing wounds that are identical to hers. She meets individuals that share similar ideals that not only teaches her something, but sheds light and new perspective on things. Her journey of self discover is not only tagged by the endless possibilities of failure, but regardless the story shows Liz’s determination and the self sacrifice needed to rediscover herself.

Eat Pray Love is directed by Ryan Murphy, but as you might expect the movie is a bit of a letdown. Murphy’s interpretation of the story might be a bit off from what the real tale tells you. The film itself is missing something extra to make the viewers feel attached to the character. The heart of the movie itself is simply missing. We are never really introduced to the tough divorce or through the difficult times experienced in her second relationship, the viewers are consistently only shown quick flashes of her hardest times, but these are a few. The film really feels broken and it never really does anything to get better as the movie proceeds. Julia Roberts is an excellent actress, we know that, but that just isn’t enough to make this movie work. Her part as Liz Gilbert feels as unattached as the film itself. She is a bit dull and never truly feels like she is trying her best.

Eat Pray Love arrives on Blu-ray with MPEG4-AVC encode framed at 1.85:1. Sony’s transfer is good enough to maintain Murphy’s intended look, but is far from being visually striking. Colors are well reproduced with greens and reds standing out the most. Colors do tend to take red tint, but they still look rather good. Contrast is a tad bit high. Murphy’s use of soft shots takes away from fine textures. But overall textures are well reproduced. There are a few soft shots, but Eat Pray Love looks good on Blu-ray.

Eat Pray Love arrives on Blu-ray with a 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio lossless track. Surprisingly, this track was better than I was expecting. It wasn’t a track that put my system to work, but it was somewhat active. The dialogue is clean and clear and has no problem being reproduced through the center channel. The rears are used from some ambience effects during some scenes of the movie. Surprising to hear the bass being subtlety used. There is some music that comes out nicely with such a roomy track. The track sounds better than expected.

The Beginning of the Journey – Allows the viewers to see the real Elizabeth Gilbert talking about her experiences with the novel and overlooking the process of the film set in Rome.

Praying in India – Much like “The Beginning of the Journey” this featurette lets Elizabeth Gilbert talk about moving the film to India.

Finding Balance – This featurette lets Elizabeth Gilbert talk about moving the film to the final location in Bali.

Ryan Murphy’s Journey with ‘Eat Pray Love’ – The director of the film discusses the filming process, his interaction with both Elizabeth Gilbert and Julia Roberts, and talks about the final product.

Music Video – “Better Days” by Eddie Vedder.

Trailers – Easy A, Welcome to the Rileys, Grown Ups, Salt, The Other Guys, Mother and Child, and Tamara Drewe.

BD-Live Functionality

Movie IQ

Eat Pray Love had the perfect romantic story that the majority of people love, a woman traveling to exotic place, living the life, enjoying the best the world has to offer, falling in love, and happy ever after. Except when Ryan Murphy translated this into the big screen it seems that it sort of fell apart. There was no connection with the main character that ultimately made the film dull. The Blu-ray features a fitting video and audio transfers with a decent set of supplements. I suggest a rental before purchasing Eat Pray Love.