Eat, Pray, Love came to theaters in movie form on August 13, 2010. If you read the book by Elizabeth Gilbert (published by Viking in February 2006) like I did, you may have been eagerly anticipating the release of this movie. I know I certainly was.
Then I saw a trailer for the movie, and noticed who had been cast to play Elizabeth Gilbert: Julia Roberts, who is one of my least favorite actresses. It’s not just because she basically has one character that she plays over and over; hey, I do like Meg Ryan. I usually do end up liking movies that JR is in though…
So, I reluctantly resigned myself to seeing it even though Julia was playing the lead character and therefore would most likely be on the screen a lot of the time (hello? it’s a memoir; told from the first person point of view). I went with a friend so that it wouldn’t be a totally lost Sunday afternoon…at least I would get to spend time with a friend sans children for a few hours.
So, need I say it more plainly? My expectations were low. I thoroughly enjoyed the coming attractions (3 more good-to-see-with-a-friend movies to watch for) so I was in a good mood when the feature finally started.
I am happy to report that the book was great, but the movie was also perfectly fine! It was not a total waste of two hours and thirteen minutes (plus travel time) after all! Of course, I love all things that have to do with Italy so it helped that the first country visited in the story was Italy.
Also, the other actors in the film were all appealing, interesting, and (a side benefit) some were pretty easy on the eyes. 🙂
Verdict: worth seeing.
Karen Creamer Author, Coach, Speaker 
🙂 I’d come and watch it with you, just to “see” Italy again!
Karen,
I share your views on Julia – same character most of the time, and that’s basically why I did not want to go. Glad to have you screne the movie for me….now I’ll wait for it to come out on netflix.
Susan