No movie springs from a vacuum. There are always influences from past examples of the genre, from the previous work of the filmmakers and stars, even from similar films that don’t quite work. If you want to understand where a movie is coming from, take a look at where it’s coming from.
In Eat Pray Love, Julia Roberts’s newly divorced writer travels to Rome, India, and Bali in order to figure out who she is and what she wants from life, and creating her own family of friends along the way. This flick sprang from (among other films):
• Under the Tuscan Sun (2003), the best movie yet about a well-off divorced American woman — in this case, played by Diane Lane — who goes to Italy and finds herself.
• Closer (2004), for another Julia Roberts character confused about love and sex; here, she’s an American photographer abroad in London and playing musical men.
• Running with Scissors (2006), for an earlier look at director Ryan Murphy, with this quirky coming-of-age dramedy about one young boy’s quest for family.
• Peggy Sue Got Married (1986), a fantastical look at how to run away from a troubled marriage, in which Kathleen Turner time-travels back to when she first met the husband she has just separated from.
Where to buy:
Closer [Region 1/U.S.] [Region 1/Can.] [Region 2]
Peggy Sue Got Married [Region 1/U.S.] [Region 1/Can.] [Region 2]
Running with Scissors [Region 1/U.S.] [Region 1/Can.] [Region 2]
Under the Tuscan Sun [Region 1/U.S.] [Region 1/Can.] [Region 2]
