Don't Read This on a Plane

I turned it off after sixteen minutes when I realized that I would not care if someone broke in and stabbed the main character with a knitting needle, except that it would have improved the film.

This problem is endemic in modern cinema. You ask me to become involved with a character without giving me any reason to do so. She's not funny, or interesting, or assertive. She says nothing clever or thoughtful or interesting. So why would I waste more than sixteen minutes watching her?

I'm presuming that she ends up on some sort of journey of self-discovery or enlightnment, but, frankly, I don't care.

The first thing we need to get out of the way is: even though this movie is categorized as a comedy, it does not really try to be funny. That does not mean it is bad, however. It's more of a slice-of-life character exploration with a very interesting subject matter. The film is devoid of clichée's, which I appreciated, and shows a woman making her way through an European book tour while having minimal resources and an out of reach husband. The film takes place in many different countries, and I liked how it treated each country that appeared, with respect. There were no cheap jokes at the expense of a certain culture or custom.

The cinematography was well-done, there are some beautiful shots, and the accents of the characters were adorable. The one frustrating part of the movie was how multi-lingual it was. This itself would not be a problem, but the movie did not come with subtitles to assist in understanding all the languages that appeared, which became bothersome after a while.

My favorite scene was when our main character gave a reading to the one french lady in a book store, which went as you would expect, but it was still entertaining.

Overall, this movie was relaxing, peaceful, and relatable. I am glad I watched it, because of how unique it was. If you want a simple movie that doesn't challenge you too much, but still holds your attention, this one might just be perfect.

This was a pleasant little movie, but the attempt at light but more overt comedy (mostly centered on the main character's reading to patrons from her erotic book) often fell flat. The writing in general was not very inspired. I think the multicultural cast did well with the script they had, but the storyline and character development worked against their efforts. Overall, I thought the cast was relatively well balanced although certainly there seemed to be newcomers and perhaps some language and cultural challenges in communicating the story. On the plus side, if you traveled low budget in Europe, you will relate to aspects of this film. That could have been capitalized on. Yet, the movie is more about the main character's self discovery than travel, and I think developing more humor and empathy from her experience should have been drawn out by the writer's. As for the cinematography, I found it top notch. Many scenes were stunning.

I would encourage anyone who is striving, struggling, and pushing on a journey to make your life vision a reality. This movie is about what's happens when your meet with a road block on your journey to greatness. Yes, it's a movie, but sometimes movies are meant to do more than entertain there is a lesson to learn.

I loved this movie. I thought it had a nice traveling charm and left me wanting to travel more. She is such a cute personality and the story overall is good. The ending isn't a home run but overall a great movie and definitely worth the time.