BASED on the memoir by Elizabeth Gilbert, Eat Pray Love is a travelogue about a divorced woman’s journey in search of herself after a failed marriage has left her emotionally battered and bruised.

Ryan Murphy’s film moves from New York to Italy, India and Indonesia, revelling in the changing architecture, landscape and cultures that provide a backdrop to the lead character’s reawakening.

It’s easy to see why Julia Roberts was attracted to the project: the allure of a strong, independent heroine coupled with sequences in Rome which allow her to gorge with gusto on the freshest pasta and pizza.

Envy is a terrible thing but we feel it here.

The film opens in Bali, where magazine writer Gilbert (Julia Roberts) visits healer and medicine man Ketut Liyer (Hadi Subiyanto) for an article, and he reveals she will lose all of her money, then get it back again.

Fast-forwarding those months and Liz’s marriage to Stephen (Billy Crudup) ends in acrimony and she seeks temporary refuge with best friend Delia (Viola Davis) before pursuing a divorce.

A brief dalliance with an actor called David (James Franco) convinces her to embark on a year-long odyssey.

Liz heads to Rome, where she makes friends with Swedish beauty Sofi (Tuva Novotny), language teacher Giovanni (Luca Argentero) and their coterie, and rediscovers her passion for food.