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 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.