Lovely to Murphy, maybe. Roger Ebert wasn't impressed:

In Italy, [Roberts's character] eats such Pavarottian plates of pasta that I hope one of the things she prayed for in India was deliverance from the sin of gluttony. At one trattoria she apparently orders the entire menu, and I am not making this up.

Ebert sounds like he was grossed out, not scandalized. He finishes his review with some subtle stings, calling the movie "shameless wish-fulfillment, a Harlequin novel crossed with a mystic travelogue." Eat, Pray Love, says Ebert, "mercifully reverses the life chronology of many people, which is Love Pray Eat."

The ultimate verdict on any controversy in the movie will, as always, be at the box office - and perhaps in upticks in business at your local Olive Garden.