Review of Eat Pray Love

I read two-thirds of the book before seeing the film. I was pleased with the cinematography, and loved the travelogue aspect of the film, having been to Rome, and wanting to go to India and Bali. I really got into the Bali segment, mainly due to the chemistry between the medicine man and Liz and, more importantly, the chemistry between Liz and Felipe. Javier Bardem was incredibly appealing as Felipe, and I was actually glad I had not read the final section of the book because I was not forced to compare the written story with the movie. Instead, I could just sit back and enjoy! On the other hand,I found Italy and India lacking in the kind of emotional and spiritual depth that was so appealing in the book. Liz Gilbert, the author, was able to involve me in the ups and downs of her experiences as she embarked on her quest for balance. I truly don't think it was possible to duplicate the engrossing details from the written narrative that so involved me in her personal adventures. The key people in her life sort of marched by in the film, without dimension or believability. I wanted very much to love the movie as much as I loved the book, but it was not until Bali that I was swept into the drama and pure enjoyment of it all. In fact I sat in the theater until all the credits were over, wishing I could watch "Part 3" over again! I feel sad that the overall consensus from most critics appears not to be favorable. Those who have not read the book certainly might find Liz's personal quest self-indulgent and superficial, and those who have read the book will be disappointed because so much is left out, and some details modified. Rarely is it possible to capture the "soul" of a good book in a film--sometime a picture is not worth a thousand words, but rather is just an image without depth of understanding. Perhaps a better option would have been a TV series, a multi-episode TV movie, or a series of three feature films, one for each stage of Liz's quest. Any of these media choices would have given the writers more opportunity to include essential details, thereby adding to the believability of Liz's experiences and allowing the viewer to better understand her true motivation. A single feature film just didn't provide enough time to do justice to the story.