EPL - my review

The night was destined to be a good one.



Theresa had called me earlier in the day & said: "dude, I’m totally broke. Can I have your shifts this weekend?" this is where I should've screamed, "YES!" & then proceeded to make out with my phone to show my appreciation, but instead I hesitated. Classic (ridiculous) workaholic behavior. But I did accept, and immediately cleared my previously scheduled plans for the evening. Juan Carlos, Chantel & I had been planning on seeing Eat, Pray, Love after my shift, so I had to turn into the flake that bugs the crap out of me & ask for a rain check.


Enter quality Popsicle devouring time in Old Towne. Zane's Rosemary Apple had a very authentic apple flavor- (as opposed to the artificially sickening sweet alternatives) -something like a golden delicious with the added 'woody' Mediterranean goodness of the rosemary. Mine, the Horchata, tasted like the leftover milk in a delicious bowl of cinnamon toast crunch. If you've never had Horchata, essentially it's a cinnamon rice milk flavored Mexican drink.


By this time, Zane had completely succumbed to the idea of being dragged to see this movie. I didn’t even ask. He simply said, “Well if we’re going to catch the 8:15 show, we better go now.” It’s so sexy isn’t it, when your man puts forethought into something that means something to you, and you know they could care less.

Let’s do a tally shall we? One – I got an unexpected weekend off, and two– my belly is full & I got hubby time in one of our favorite local spots. Needless to say I was in the perfect mindset to begin watching this muchly anticipated film.

A little bit of history- my initial reaction to discovering that they were making a movie of EPL went something like this: “Omg. THEY’RE MAKING EPL INTO A MOVIE!!!” and then… “Omg. They’re making EPL into a movie; how can this adaption be anything less than disappointing?!?” So I was equal parts nervous, curious & excited. And then upon hearing that Julia Roberts would play the character of Liz, my expectations sunk even lower. I wondered how I could possibly see Liz on screen, and not Julia Roberts.


My doubts were summed up nicely by Andrew O’Hehir, a reviewer.

“… it’s an artfully managed literary exercise, a thoughtful work of self examinations that’s designed to encourage the reader’s own. Movies don’t do that well, or at least not the kinds of movies people build around Julia Roberts.”

I was determined not to pick apart the movie as I was watching it- not to look too deeply into it, but just enjoy the film; maybe even pretend it’s just a random chick flick instead. I was pleasantly surprised that the movie moved in the satisfying sequential order based on the book & all events were ‘true enough’ to the story.

Liz’s husband is still an impalpable character, yet he’s given more dimensions on screen than in the book which is an observation connected to my biggest wish for the film –that they would have put more emphasis on Liz not wanting a baby as being more of a key struggle. Then I wouldn’t cringe every time I hear someone comment about how selfish she seems to be. It’s more understandable when a couple is at odds over non-negotiable topics such as raising children together (or not). The book also goes into much more detail about her struggle to actually leave. It talks about Liz hiding in the bathroom for ‘like the 47th consecutive night, sobbing…” and then vomiting for months from pure anxiety about the thought of leaving. You really only have one scene where she in a bathroom & the emotion expressed in that sequence is not as palpable as it is when reading it.

Another review again sums up exactly what I mean when they state:

“At 140 minutes, it’s much too long to tell a compact story, but not nearly long enough to explain itself adequately.”

The movie justifies itself when you get to visually experience her journeys thru Italy, India & Indonesia. It opened itself up in a beautiful way that was severely limited in my imagination.

“Richard from Texas” made Zane laugh out loud. Several times. I was thankful for that. Though overall, he wasn’t quite inspired the way I was. He said that the movie made him really want to ‘rattle off the whole menu at an Italian restaurant (in Italian of course) like Liz did someday.’ Hey, to each their own.

Bottom line, the movie was a pleasant surprise. It reminded me of some things about the book that I loved, and it was fun to bring those things back to my thoughts.