Me, Eating and Loving, on My Honeymoon in Rome (2009)
Just when I’d given up all hope of ever seeing a movie again, my parents came to visit and dote on their adorable new grandson. Drew and I took this opportunity to see Eat Pray Love, a movie that I’d been dying to watch ever since it was announced that it was being made.
I heart Elizabeth Gilbert. Eat Pray Love is one of my very favorite books ever. I read it while I was going through a divorce, so in addition to identifying with Liz’s natural charm and wit, I also felt like she was reading my mind and typing it into her laptop. I just know we would be best friends. I also heart Julia Roberts, even though I don’t think she deserved to win an Academy Award for Erin Brockovich. Duh, it should have gone to Ellen Burstyn for Requiem for a Dream that year. Anyway, I guess that I’m saying that I sort of loved the movie even before I saw it.
On to the movie…
I loved the adaptation. I thought they did a great job with it. It was extremely well cast. I think Julia Roberts was a great choice to play Liz Gilbert. Even though I like Julia, I was concerned that she might come off a little too stiff for Liz, but the warmth was there. Javier Bardem was dreamy and sensitive, the perfect Felipe. I loved the scene where his son came to visit and then he had to tell him goodbye. So touching. James Franco and Richard Jenkins, as usual, were awesome. Note: If you haven’t seen The Visitor, starring Richard Jenkins, see it now. It is fabulous.
I’m glad they worked in the part in India where she’s in the meditation room and they use voiceover so we can see what’s going through her head. She’s trying to figure out where she’s going to live after her year of traveling is up and her mind starts trying to figure out how to decorate her meditation room. I remember making “LOL!” notes beside that part in the book. I’ve had many similar yoga classes and acupuncture sessions. I wish the filmmaker would have used that method to bring in her plan to abstain from sex for the year. In the book, she thought it was hilarious that she began her journey surrounded by hot Italian men that she had no intention of sleeping with. This also got margin LOLs in my copy of the novel.
I think that if you’re a fan of the book, you’ll be a fan of the movie. Unless you hate Julia Roberts. Then it might suck for you.
The End