Eat Pray Love

(M) Sony DVD/BD

This movie based on Liz Gilbert’s bestselling novel has Julia Roberts mixing her spiritual metaphors and sprouting bumper sticker slogans. She eats her way through Rome and, prays (or meditates) her way through an ashram in India.

No surprises then when she discovers how to love and forgive herself for her failed marriage under the tutelage of a spiritualist in Bali.

It is easy to label the film self indulgent, because at two and half hours long it does overstay its welcome, but the truism that the film arrives at, that the people we meet along life’s journey all teach us important things about ourselves, makes you feel that life spent in Roberts’ company isn’t all that bad.

Heartfelt and emotional, the film benefits from a stellar support cast, with the likes of Javier Badem and James Franco playing the men in Gilbert’s life.

Adrian Drayton