Julia Roberts stars in this chick flick as Liz Gilbert. A story and little long one at that, is centered on a woman going through a mid-life crisis due to a divorce. With money being no object, she sets her sights on traveling the country that takes her to beautiful surroundings such as India, Italy and Indonesia to find her true meaning in life. Me, heck I’m usually just lucky enough to afford a trip to Wal-Mart or Applebees. But, my day is coming. Anyway, the film is based on Elizabeth Gilbert’s best selling memoir and co-stars James Franco (Harry in the Spiderman franchise), Billy Crudup, Javier Bardem, Richard Jenkins and Viola Davis to name a few. Speaking of James Franco, we will see him again this November in “127 Hours”.

She learns the language of each country, their cultures how to cook and with that comes the devouration part. This chick eats and eats and eats. Then she partakes of wine because it goes so well with all the pasta, pizza and salad she was forced to eat on the set. All the food shown in this movie would put the food network to shame, but not me. Well, I feel bad for Julia but being a good sport and taking her roles very seriously, she took one for the team. It’s just another day at the office.

In India she meets her mentor who also has his past to expel, and goes about their customs which includes a lot of praying practices. “Loosing balance for love is like loosing balance for life”, then she fast forward ahead to Bali where true love unexpectedly awaits her. I say this because before I knew it she was in a different country as if she was in Epcot Center walking from country to country in a matter of minutes. Wouldn’t it be nice to get to work that fast and sleep in longer?

The film drags somewhat in the middle and perhaps being a tad bit shorter it would have kept some of the screening audience in the theatre from checking their watches, but the presentation of the food and the scenery make up for all that. In her final jaunt, she meets a Brazilian and has to decide whether to stay or go back to the states. Aw…the big decision one has to make in life is not as simple as a cold beer or glass of wine anymore.

You will remember the 43 year old Georgian native Julia Roberts from her 1989 “Steel Magnolia”, 2001′s “Erin Brokovich” and her break through “Mystic Pizza” days back in 1988. But it was in 1990 that “Pretty Woman” propelled her to a huge box office success with extensive credits.  Back in June 1993 in Marion, Indiana, she married country singer Lyle Lovett who was performing at then Deer Creek outdoor amphitheater in Noblesville (Indiana). Now we refer to it as Verizon Wireless Music Center. They later divorced in March 1995. I still say the number one cause of divorces are marriages and that it’s also the second mouse that gets the cheese in the trap contrary to popular belief from the first mouse. What did he know? He made a snap decision. The mouse is not in the film however as his role was cut out. But this movie does contain enough cheese dishes to make the cheese heads (and mice) in Wisconsin envious.

The music score is wonderful with focus on oldies songs including Fleetwood Mac and Eddie Vetter from Pearl Jam. But normally only half of the score listed in the credits, which you should always try to stick around for, only make it to the soundtrack. That has to be a tough decision because there are some wonderful film scores out there that we hear only half of when we purchase those soundtracks.

“Eat, Pray, Love” is a 3 star (out of 5) movie rated PG-13 and clocks in at 133 minutes. That is just long enough for you to have enough time to run out grab a few pizzas, some pasta to go along side it, (don’t forget the salad), a few cold beers or two carafes of red wine, because it goes so well with pasta, if there even has to be a reason, plus it contains more alcohol (just an assumption), and you still get to your favorite work place on time for a pee test. That works for me because after watching this film you will be both hungry and thirsty and that .002 pee test won’t matter because you studied well for it.

The film opens Friday August 13 and competes with the testosterone filled Sylvester Stone “The Expendables’ (not reviewed). If you expect to see one but accidentally stray in to the other, may the force be with you. What do you get when you cross estrogen with testosterone? You really do not want to go there. Maybe that is why both open on Friday the 13th. That’s scary.

This is Hustlin’ Bob Higgins and I’ll see you at the movies.