i absolutely loved and i mean LOVED this book. sunday morning i sat perusing the paper and lo and behold i found out that wow now its a movie and its playing at a theatre near my house which isnt too over priced and i knew i just HAD to see it. so i finally drag my very sweet and extremely "tolerant of all things erin" boyfriend to the movie. did i mention this is a GREAT book? i highly recommend it. i do not however recommend going out to the movies to see it. its not that its a BAD movie...its more that a lot of liberties were taken with the basic story and the spirituality and self discovery sides of the book were lost in translation (such as the differences in different meditations and why one might prefer to use a certain meditation to achieve a certain result...and they totally and completely obliterated gilbert's attainment (if an applicable word here) of a state of turiya...and balinese culture and customs...and well most of the inspiring people and key events of the book)...i knew i was gambling when i bought my ticket that this might happen. however, the authoress, elizabeth gilbert, spent four months out of the year in italy, india, and indonesia each. this is her story. so i was expecting to see some really awesome great scenery at the very least since the movie spends about an hour on each of her destinations. basically it just ends up being a divorcee story where the woman travels the world and finds love at the end. oh and theres some really cool scenery but this movie is mostly close ups of julia roberts and flashbacks. im not saying dont go see this movie...im just saying maybe wait until it comes out in redboxes nationwide...pay a dollar...watch it a few times...THEN decide if you like it. personally, i was entranced and rather bored all at the same time...i just kept waiting and waiting and waiting for the movie to get better...but even not basing this movie on the book and just holding it for its individual worth....im not all that jazzed about it. so to make it up to my boyfriend im cooking an excellent dinner italiano tonight, getting a couple sixers, a bottle of wine, and baseball tickets for tomorrows twin game. so that, my sweets, is my daily vent. it was probably as boring as that dang movie but i really had to get that off my chest.

I agree with the entranced and yet bored comment. That's exactly how I'd describe it.

Haven't read the book.

oh the book is more in depth into whats going on in her head. and its reveals the other characters more fully and why they are important. i thought it was pretty cool because it is an autobiography of a modern woman facing down her demons as everyone must. the parts in india and bali are almost completely changed in the movie which lost a lot of the flavor of the story for me.