So during a break in the tennis action, friend Diane and I went to the movies: and saw Eat, Pray, Love with Julia Roberts. A good film, not excellent. But the locales and backgrounds were worth the trip, especially Bali. I expect them to have a major spike in tourism!
Julia was to me not particularly believeable, and especially in the early scenes, melodrama rather than drama. A different actor likely would have been better. The flashback scenes of her courtship and wedding – especially where their first dance together turns into him breakdancing in front of her – were interesting – as was the dance of forgiveness in India, very real. The holy man / psychic in Bali was good – with his psychic wife in the background. Julia was more real there than anywhere. And Texas in India was terrific.
All of it was interesting, and a way for us (mostly women) to share the communal cultural experience of having read the book and seen the movie more or less together. Being in that dining room in Rome, in that ashram in India, and anywhere in beautiful Bali was plenty enough for me.