Eat Pray Love DVD

Eat Pray Love
I bought the DVD and watched the movie, then I read the book, and then I googled the topic.
So much has already been said, positive and negative, but I wanted to log my impressions and some good links on my blog for reference.

The movie is worth a watch, good even, but it felt lacking. Maybe because it's supposed to be this big inspirational movie and it wasn't that for me.

The book is laboriously verbose and I found myself skimming paragraphs to get to the point. I didn't start to like Liz until after reading India. Somehow her acknowledging and accepting her chatty side helped me to be more accepting of it in her writing. The India section in the book is better than the movie because it gives more context and information so it's more meaningful. Richard isn't as obnoxious in the book as he is in the movie. The confrontation between Felipe and Liz near the end of the movie did not happen in the book. So Felipe is better in the book too.

There are a lot of differences in the movie vs book, too numerous to mention all of them. A lot of times things said in the book are given a different speaker, context, setting.

One of my favorite scenes in the movie, where Giovanni talks about fear, did not happen in the book. Probably more of a minor character but I sure liked him for that scene.

"I thank God for fear because for the first time, I'm afraid the person next to me will be the one who wants to leave."
Awh...


Heart of Gold by Neil Young played during that scene.

That's Sofi with him in the photo. In the book Giovanni had a twin, Dario, and Dario was dating Sofie (with an e).

Another favorite in the movie was on the rooftop/tower scene, where Liz visualized a meeting with her ex-husband in a way that allowed her to let go of the guilt, etc. The visualization was different in the movie, but similar effect. It was the plumber not Richard who took Liz to the rooftop place.


Harvest Moon by Neil Young played during that scene.

Liz's ex is never mentioned by name in the book. His name is Stephen in the movie. In real life his name is Michael Cooper.

Italy was my favorite section of the movie. Didn't like India in the movie. Bali's Kutu and Waylan were interesting characters. Waylan was more complex in the book and not so nice. Kutu was funnier in the book.

The DVD has a Theatre version and a Director's Cut. It doesn't tell you that Director's Cut has about 5 minutes of extra scenes. Why not just have a deleted scenes feature and not make us watch the entire l-o-n-g 140-146 minutes movie twice?

I was hard pressed to find Felipe in the cast list at imdb or on the DVD credits. He's way down the list. He's actor, Javier Bardem. Married to Penélope Cruz (July 2010).
About 2 years younger than Julia Roberts in real life. 17 years older than Liz in the book. (J is H sound, HaviAIR BarDEM.)

Flight Attendant by Josh Rouse played during the bar scene with David and Liz.


Better Days by Eddie Vedder played at the end into the credits.


LINKS:

Movie vs Book

Theatrical vs Director's Cut

Letter To David
(Not exact, but close enough.)

Tons of big movie photos

Liz on Creativity
Video and Transcript. (also YouTube)
19 minutes - GOOD.
"Aren't you afraid that you're going to work your whole life at this craft and nothing's ever going to come of it and you're going to die on a scrap heap of broken dreams with your mouth filled with bitter ash of failure?"

barnesandnoble interview
"This is the secret reason I travel so much, and to such distant places. To get away from everyone I know."
"I believe that creativity is a living force that thrums wildly through this world and expresses itself through us."

Liz on EPL
Video - Authors@Google: Elizabeth Gilbert
GOOD
30 minutes
Liz reads chapter 49 of EPL.
Italian made her feel more alive, mixed up the sentences, words too.
Eat, Pray, Love, "Repeat" would be the 4th verb or maybe "Remember" that would be good too.

Making the Movie - Julia Roberts
9 minutes
Julia says, not for everyone, that's what Gilbert did and does --travel.

Letterman and Roberts
David Letterman with Julie Roberts
Funny to watch those two banter back and forth.