Loved the book and the movie is great too. Gosling is fantastic.
I think the film could benefit from 30 minutes or so extra runtime, to be honest. Parts of the film feel long, parts feel short. Easier to extend the short parts than trim the long ones, in my opinion.
There are some critical scenes the film left out of the book. Learning the language of another species is far better explained in the book. The opening sequence is very rushed in the film too. And there are several sequences in which Rocky learns about humans that are nonexistent in the film (and similarly, a lot of great scenes where Grace learns about Eridians that really ope him up as a character). These scenes are all important for character development and establishing the world. It’s a bummer they were cut (I’m sure they shot them, but had to trim them for time).
That one small criticism aside, this was pretty and delightful. Another great addition to the Competence Porn genre.