A moving experience. That being said: In Italy, there was none of the sumptuous, decadent extravagance of food conveyed. The essence of the breakthrough in India wasn't attempted - could have been a cinematic wow. The makeup was hideous, and some of the shots were flat. But Javier Bardem burned up the screen. He makes a very nice nice-guy.
Beautifully shot, the movie was thrilling. However, the plot jumped around significantly enough so that one who hadn't read the book(s) might be confused. Perhaps some important bits were left on the cutting room floor? If so, it was an unfortunate decision, as the movie was exciting enough and well acted enough to have sustained audience interest for far longer even than the unusually long running time of 2:33. It really did seem as if there were some very rough cuts made. Maybe the writing could have help here, to make the plot more smoothly understood. It is sad that this otherwise perfect movie should suffer from these strange flaws. Can we look forward to a Director's Cut?