It strikes me this movie was made as a way to make a few more dollars off the legions of people (mostly women) who have read and loved the book as I think this would not at all be compelling if you hadn’t had the reading background first. It was fun to see who was cast as which character, but the book, sprawling and mostly internal dialogue, was greatly compressed to make this movie. Even in compressed form, it felt pretty long.
poster from: http://www.impawards.com/2010/eat_pray_love_ver2.html