Eat, pray, READ

I maybe could have handled it if they'd cast someone else. Kate Hudson, perhaps, or even Cameron Diaz. But the minute I heard that Julia Roberts was cast to play author Elizabeth Gilbert in the film version of Gilbert's book "Eat, Pray, Love" I knew I wasn't going to be buying a ticket.
The whole idea of making the wildly popular book into a movie was a dubious prospect from go. Most of the action in the book transpires in Gilbert's head, particularly the "pray" section. So how, I wondered, could that be accurately portrayed on film?
Then I saw the previews and realized how: cliches and gimmicks. Julia as Elizabeth tumbles from her bike and is swept up by her lover-to-be. That isn't the way they really met, but why let reality get in the way of a good story, right?
In fact, having seen several clips from the film, I find it almost unrecognizable when compared to the book. The old school of "Let's take a great book, throw it in a blender, add some big stars, and simplify it for the easy digestion of the audience."
Ok, I'll admit to making sweeping judgments about a film I haven't seen. But I've seen enough movies based on books I loved that were either dumbed down or rewritten beyond recognition by filmmakers who either underestimated their audience's intelligence or wanted to turn the movie into their own creative statement.
Another case in point: the new film "Beezus and Ramona." Anyone who's ever read even one of the beloved series of books authored by Beverly Cleary knows that Ramona was not a little princess wanna be, and Beezus was no adoring, indulgent big sister.
What makes the "Ramona" books so endearing is the way they capture the irritations, pleasures and misunderstandings of family life. It's real. Parents quarrel and lose jobs, pets die, siblings battle. But in the end the message is always the same: families struggle together, grow together and, above all, love one another through thick and thin.
I hope that children who see the cutesied-up version of Cleary's stories will pick up the books and not quickly put them down because they don't resemble the movie. I hope they'll recognize themselves and come back for more.
I wish the same for those who see "Eat, Pray, Love," and for anyone who ever saw a movie based on a book, ever. No matter how amazing the film adaptation of a book may be, and some truly are glorious visual tributes to the originals, there's nothing like the movie screen of one's own imagination to bring characters and events to life in the most vivid, memorable - and personal - light.