Some books are just made to be turned into films, and “eat pray love” was definitely one of them. It had a huge impact on the people who read it. I heard about “Eat pray love” after everybody had already read it. My friends talked about how it changed their lives and their points of view, how they’ve seen the light, and finally realized how they should be leading each day. It sounded too good to be true. Personally, I don’t believe that there is one book out there with the ability to change an entire life, so I read it, weeks before it was released in the cinema as an adaptation.
I enjoyed the beginning. A young, married woman lying on her “perfect” bathroom floor crying and feeling miserable with her life. I admit that reading this was captivating. It’s easy to relate to a character who is utterly miserable in a life that she probably never chose, who struggles to find happiness in a life where things just happen to go wrong. I also agree that when you reach a certain breaking point in life, you should definitely do something about it and taking a year off, traveling around the world a good idea. Italy, India, Thailand – I thought that it would be a really interesting book, but unfortunately it was not. Halfway through the book I lost interest. Naturally, Italy was funny and reading about it was exciting, but India and Bali didn’t meet expectations. Despite liking the initial idea of the story, I found that somewhere along the way, it lost itself.
Having this in mind, I went to see the movie hoping that the photography and the places that I would see might make it more interesting, especially the parts of the book that I found boring, but once again, I was wrong.
For one, I know that Julia Roberts is an Oscar-winning actress, so I kind of understood the fact that she was cast. But she did not pull off a 30 year old having an emotional breakdown. Instead, she appeared to be a 45 year old experiencing that inevitable mid-life crisis. It’s not the same, believe me. James Franco as “David” is also an inadequate choice, since in the book, “David” is not just a rebound relationship. He is a really nice guy, with his own problems -he is a man – with whom “Liz” really falls in love. However, despite all these continuous flash-backs in the movie while she travels, neither her true desperation during her marriage nor her genuine love for “David” are obvious in the movie, meaning that it fails to convey why exactly “Liz” is willing to give up her fortune and take some time off on her own to find out what she wants. The traveling begins with Italy as the first stop, the most interesting part in the book and of the movie, with amazing scenery and delicious Italian cuisine, so that you totally get the whole “eat” thing. The following stop is India where “Liz” finds it difficult to meditate and adjust to her new reality, something that is well presented in the movie. The idea of Javier Bardem appearing in the next stop, Thailand, raised my expectations for a more appealing ending. The man is an ideal choice. He appears to be this perfect 40 something year old, really cool, attractive and easy going guy. The movie omitted several things mentioned in the book, probably to save time, something that made this romance less romantic, exciting and lasting meaning that the “love” part didn’t appear as strong and revealing as expected. Overall a moderate book, and a moderate movie.
Punch line: “Believe in love again”
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