Eat Pray Love: my thoughts on the movie

*not a spoiler*

So, as mentioned in my last post (just a few hours ago) I could NOT wait to see the movie…so I didn’t… Matt, my husband, and I made a date to see it at Atlantic Station after my team meeting at Twisted Taco. (He’s very sweet.)

On my way from Twisted Taco to Atlantic Station, I talked to my mom and of course let her know where I was going. She had seen the previews and thought it would be a good movie, as well. (This is cool, because she’s not really a movie person) … then I mentioned how much I loved the book and that I read it twice and couldn’t get enough, yadda yadda ya…and her first response: ‘well, you’re probably not gonna like the movie then…’ I was a bit taken aback…my mother is a very positive person- pretty much always… in fact, we had just finished a conversation where I had been telling her about a particularly trying circumstance in my life, but that I wasn’t ‘stressing’ about it because she has been such an incredible example to teach me that, in a nutshell, ‘this too shall pass’…

Anyhow, she was right…sort of… I did enjoy the movie…but the book was SOOO much better…they always are… (that was her point)… I think that if you have read Eat Pray Love in the past, that you should watch the movie and THEN reread it (if you have plans to reread)… not reread it first (like I did)… but if you have never read the book, I think you should read it first and then watch the movie. There is a lot of information you need to take from the book and insert into the movie yourself… because a movie just can’t portray all of her thoughts…To sum it up:

If you have never read the book -> do that first
If you read the book a long time ago->watch the movie (and then reread)

Overall, I was very happy that Julia Roberts (aka me) played Liz. I think she did a fine job. The same as I felt I was Gilbert in the book, I felt I was Julia in the movie (however, this time it is because she physically looks like me:)). I did cry, but I think its success is primarily going to ride off of the popularity of the book… you just can’t compare.