Comments on: Eat, Pray, Love Movie: A Disaster in the Making?

By: Heloisa

Heloisa — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 05:39:56 +0000

Shame on the movie. Even Armenia, the sexy brazilian friend that Liz makes in Indonesia ia an american actress. I hope they at least mention that Armenia and Felipe are brazilians…

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By: Summer

Summer — Mon, 24 May 2010 23:24:47 +0000

Why not cast onw of the wonderful Brazilian actors to play the Brazilian character?
I don’t get it. A Spanish actor playing a Brazilian. Why?
It just perpetrates the misconception Americans have about Brazilian.
Rodrigo Santoro has been in many American movies and never played a Brazilian. Couldn’t Hollywood get him to portrait a Brazilian?
That shows how authentic this movie is going to be.

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By: Mary

Mary — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 21:14:31 +0000

Fearing dearly that this will be a super grand production, highlighting the romance, with a little bit of friendship and travel and too little about the spiritual journey itself.

As for the Julia Roberts issue I believe that could really go either really well or monumentally poorly. She is great, I just can not be sure!

Someone mentioned Laura Dern…that would have been a better choice Id reckon.

When one tryies to picture a Brazilian-born man of Australian citizenship, many shapes might come to mind…but…Javier Bardem? as Felipe? Seriously???? No Brazilian actors available? Or even some Latin-Australian looking fellow? Plus isnt Felipe meant to be light, a breath of fresh air in her life? Intense Javier Bardem?

The remaining of the cast sounds just as dubious. I was pretty glad to know the book would be turned into a movie, I imagined taking this great journey visually, but this is shapping to be the complete opposite of what I had been expecting.
Sounding too much like a disaster in the making.

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By: Ana Burnier

Ana Burnier — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 16:40:10 +0000

You guys just don’t get it, Julia Roberts BOUGHT the rights to this movie… she wasn’t just cast into it! I was not very happy about it either, what with her track of bad career choices and shallow roles, but who knows this might not be a refreshing exception in the likes of Pretty Woman, Steel Magnolias and Erin Brokovich? As for the book, I really loved it, even though Elizabeth Gilberts writing technique could get a little repetitive at times. But only those who have been there, as she puts it, in the bathroom floor, can possibly relate to this. To the others, who have been complaining about her whining, all I can say is this: GOOD FOR YOU. Depression is something I would not wish even to my worst enemy…

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By: Louise

Louise — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 22:41:39 +0000

I’m horrified Julia Roberts will be playing Elizabeth Gilbert in the movie version of Eat, Pray, Love. It just isn’t a Julia movie. I loved the book and was hopefully a movie would be made though I don’t know if I will go see it now that Julia cast in the lead role.

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By: Giovana

Giovana — Sat, 23 Jan 2010 12:33:20 +0000

I really don’t think the movie will do justice to Gilbert’s book. I think it will be just a nice movie, like many others that has been done in the last decade. Not at all close that it could be. First of all, it’s so obvious that Julia Roberts is playing Gilbert. Laura Dern or Laura Linney would be so much better, because the image of Julia Roberts is so defined, so imediately associative with a big movie star (even enjoying the acting work of Roberts anyway). Also, Gilbert, now a forty year-old woman, at the time of the journey she was 34-35 year-old woman, which is crucial to the story because the point was the thirty year old thing that Gilbert was going through, trying to have kids, but she wasn’t sure about it, and then the broken marriage and everyting else…
Second of all, I just love Javier Bardem, but for God sakes, he’s spanish, Felipe is a brazilian guy who lives in Indonesia, I wonder if Hollywood took geographic lessons… Spain is Europe, Brazil is South America, a completely different country that gives to the role a whole new perspective. And I talk this as a brazilian. We have down here great actors who could play this role in a brilliant way, shame on Hollywood, so ignorant expecting the audience to not distinguish the distint accents… I look forward to see Bardem talking brazilian words (altough I think he is a great actor). About the Indian thing I agree with all that was said here, superficial and stereotypical way to see these cultures that Gilbert tells us in her book.

I apologize my english, it’s not that good.

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By: C, L.

C, L. — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 04:29:31 +0000

Loved this book! Huge fan of the author! As with all top selling books these days, it is inevitable that a film would come next. I welcome the opportunity to see Elizabeth Gilbert translate her experience once again in a new writing format and medium! Regarding the lead casting, I am more then a bit dissapointed. A lot of the themes in the book were inner strength, dimensionality and breakthroughs in self awareness. It would have been nice to see someone less obvious and expected showcasing their strengths as Elizabeth Gilbert. Laura Dern, Kyra Sedgwick, Emily Mortimer…

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By: Rachel

Rachel — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 08:14:58 +0000

I’ve been living in Ubud Bali, where the third section of the book is set for the last nine months. They’re filming the movie here at the moment and I’m very interested to see how it portrays Bali. I’ve travelled in India too and if anything I think Bali is even more of a religous/spiritual place. They practise a unique form of hinduism here which is an integral part of daily life for every Balinese person. The book seemed more focused on India as the ’spiritual destination’ so it’ll be interesting to compare Hollywood’s version of Bali to the reality.

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By: Laura Giliberti

Laura Giliberti — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 20:53:26 +0000

I was dissapointed that Elizabeth Gilbert sold the movie to Hollywood. It really cheapened her book I think. Lost some respect for her, and her story–another quick and easy way to make a buck.

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By: Mariellen

Mariellen — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 15:04:39 +0000

I don’t understand the fuss — a commercial book is being made into a commercial movie.

This is not a criticism of EPL — it is a fine memoir and a good read. The problem is that many people are construing it as a spiritual tome. If you are unaccustomed to reading spiritual books, it’s understandable: EPL is like a spiritual book with training wheels.

But there are many many excellent non-commercial spiritual books available that will NEVER be made into a movie with Julia Roberts. Here’s a few (India inspired):
- Bhagavad Gita
- Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras
- the teachings of Sri Ramana Maharishi
- anything by J. Krishnamurti
- anything by Sri Aurobindo
- Autobiography of a Yogi

And from western writers who have visited India as seekers:
- Empire of the Soul by Paul William Roberts
- A Search for Secret India by Paul Brunton
- A Rope in the Water by Sylvia Fraser
- anything by Joseph Campbell

Teachers:
- Ram Dass
- Mark Whitwell
- Desikachar
- BKS Iyengar
- Sri Sri Ravi Shankar
- Sai Baba

This is off the top of my head. If you want to know more, I write regularly about books on or about India at http://breathedreamgo.com/

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