Eat Pray Love (Murphy, 2010)

Last updated on: January 10, 2015 at 10:42 pm by Kenneth R. Morefield

Eat Pray Love (Murphy, 2010) 2015-01-10T22:42:23-05:00 Kenneth R. Morefield

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

The following is an excerpt from the August 2010 1More Podcast (Episode 6), dealing with backlash.

Ken:

I liked the movie. One of the things I liked about it…the movie was stewed […..], and most Americans, I think, like their entertainment in a more distilled form. I found myself refreshed or appreciative of the fact that this wasn’t distilled [….] I think some of the problems the movie had [was] that it tried to take a book that sounds like it was more that way [stewed] — here’s my personal experience and here’s a long process of all of it, and were trying to push it more in the direction the audience would be comfortable with — which is a commercially narrative film.

I may just be on the anti-backlash backlash bandwagon […] because I did consciously find myself aware while watching the movie that…wow, there’s going to be a lot of people that really, really, really hate this movie, and I know some of them, and I know the reasons why I think they will hate this move, and…I don’t want to be that person. I want to distance myself from that person…one of them is along the gender divide [….] I think that there will be a number of conservatives or evangelicals who really hate the movie because they will perceive it as being anti-marriage.

I think this goes back to [the idea of backlash created by people who have] anxiety or conflict about other things. I think there is a segment of the masculine population [….] that is really struggling with a kind of resentment at having lost an amount of [privilege or security] that comes from there being less–although by no means none–stigma towards divorce and towards women who initiate divorce, and get out of marriages…and, so I think there’s a certain amount of residual frustration that often expresses itself towards feminism and the ‘evils of feminism’ and the way it [has] changed our society…and then along will come an artifact, and that just becomes a convenient sort of anchor for a lot of this free-floating anger. I think there will be this [cultural or gender divide of] some people not even getting to the point of understanding her values or her experiences or trying to get at them, but who will just say ‘she clearly doesn’t share mine’ and therefore, somehow or another ‘I’m afraid that mine are being attacked or impugned in some way and I will just reflexively reject anything that [the film] has to offer.’

Eat Pray Love is not a perfect film. A fan of the book, who saw the film with me, called it “the book-lite.” Yet she also said it got “enough” of what made the book great (for some) to be a worthwhile adaptation. As someone who hadn’t read the book, I felt I understood intuitively what she meant. The weakest parts of the film were those elements imposed on the material by the structure of a commercially narrative film–but there was enough fidelity of the book to resist the momentum towards turning the story into one where the narrative resolution serves as the philosophical answer.

I was able to accept this not as a blueprint for how to live my life but as one woman’s story about how she chose to try to live hers and things that she learned while doing it. On that level, I think it works fine, just so long as the reader doesn’t try to extract from it the answers to life, the universe, and everything.

To hear more about my take on the film or what the other participants thought, check out the podcast at the above link or on Itunes.

Previous Post

August 13, 2010

1More Podcast — Episode 6

Next Post

August 20, 2010 The Switch (Gordon & Speck, 2010)

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category 10 Years Later 1999 Top 5 2007 Top 10 2008 Favorite Discoveries 2008 Top 10 2009 Favorite Discoveries 2009 Top 10 2010 Favorite Discoveries 2010 Top 10 2011 Top 10 2012 Top Ten 2013 Top Ten 2014 Top Ten Best Picture Winners Christian Spotlight on Entertainment Christianity Today Coming Soon Disclosure Disclosure--AS Disclosure--Book Disclosure--DVDS Disclosure--SEOL Disclosure--Travel Dissenting Opinion Elsewhere Emergenetics Essays Featured Film Fest DC--2014 Film Festivals Full Frame Documentary Film Festival 2010 Full Frame Documentary Film Festival 2011 Full Frame Documentary Film Festival 2012 Full Frame Documentary Film Festival 2013 Full Frame Documentary Film Festival 2014 Headline Interviews Laura on the Oscar Winners Podcasts Quick Impressions Reviews RiverRun Film Festival 2014 Television The Criterion Collection The Thin Place To Stream or Not to Stream? Top 10s and Other Lists Toronto International Film Festival 2009 Toronto International Film Festival 2010 Toronto International Film Festival 2011 Toronto International Film Festival 2012 Toronto International Film Festival 2013 Toronto International Film Festival 2014 Uncategorized Video Virginia Film Festival 2011 Virginia Film Festival 2013 Women's Film Festival 2012

Select a Month February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 December 2009 November 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

What did David use to calm Saul when Saul was troubled by a harmful spirit?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Flute Drum Harp Trumpet