- 8
...a satisfying drama...
—Sean O'Connell filmcritic.com
- 7
The film's saving grace is that it ventures out of (Elizabeth) Gilbert's head, sparing us some of the neuroses and highlighting gorgeous locales and appealing fellow travelers.
—Alynda Wheat People
- 6
...amount(s) to a whole lot of navel-gazing about problems that, absent the author's unique narrative language, don't nearly fill up the 133-minute space the movie version allots.
—Lisa Schwarzbaum Entertainment Weekly
- 6
Though targeted at the same female filmgoers who flocked to the self-realization via food porn of Julie and Julia, EPL is a comparative downer, offering the rush of self-improvement without having to do any of the work. I cried. Mission accomplished?
—Karina Longworth LA Weekly
- 6
...the movie's hand-holding stridency just emphasizes the artificiality of its fantasy...
—Tasha Robinson Onion AV Club
- 6
...unlikely to change anybody's life or even to provoke emotions anywhere near as intense as those experienced, early and late, by its intrepid heroine. Its span may be global, but its scope is modest, and it accepts a certain superficiality as the price of useful insight. Watch. Smile. Go home and dream of Brazilians in Bali.
—A . O. Scott New York Times
- 6
...an imperfect yet beautifully rendered adaptation of Elizabeth Gilbert's memoir...
—Betsy Sharkey Los Angeles Times
- 6
...for those of us along for the ride, it's a bit of a slog.
—Claudia Puig USA Today
- 6
Though targeted at the same female filmgoers who flocked to the self-realization via food porn of Julie and Julia, EPL is a comparative downer, offering the rush of self-improvement without having to do any of the work. I cried. Mission accomplished?
—Karina Longworth Village Voice
- 5
The audience I joined was perhaps 80 percent female. I heard some sniffles and glimpsed some tears, and no wonder. Eat Pray Love is shameless wish-fulfillment, a Harlequin novel crossed with a mystic travelogue...
—Roger Ebert Chicago Sun-Times
- 5
...will likely do the trick for a good percentage of those who loved Gilbert's memoir.
—Michael Phillips Chicago Tribune
- 5
...most of what made the book connect with so many is entirely missing here.
—Dezhda Gaubert E!
- 5
Eat Pray Love isn't an offensive film, but it is a shallow and antsy one...
—Matthew Connolly Slant Magazine
- 5
The film never ventures, even once, into a situation that does not reek of comfy familiarity.
—Kirk Honeycutt Hollywood Reporter
- 4
...an exotic junk-food buffet that offers few lasting pleasures or surprises, let alone epiphanies.
—Justin Chang Variety
- 4
...a very shallow, very glossy 2½-hour travelogue starring a miscast Julia Roberts...
—Lou Lumenick New York Post
- 4
...mediocre...
—Andrew O'Hehir Salon
- 3
Having not read Elizabeth Gilbert's bestseller about her yearlong journey to Italy, India and Bali to achieve balance and spiritual enlightenment, I can only speak of the torture of watching the movie.
—Peter Travers Rolling Stone