Eat Pray Love – Scott Pilgram – Peepli Live

Eat Pray Love
Julia Roberts, love her or hater her is a one of Hollywood’s biggest stars, her latest venture is Eat, Pray, Love.
Eat, Pray, Love is the real life story of Elizabeth Gilbert who after a failed marriage and other social failures decided to see the world outside of her New York confines and documented her experiences along the way. Rather then be a wondering backpacking soul she had specific places that she wanted to visit which in the movie include Italy for the Eat, India for the Pray and at this risk of ruining most of the movie the love is in Bali.
You would think that the danger with adapting any best selling book to the big screen would be that the main topic of discussion will always be does it measure up
I did the right thing with this movie and I watched it with a fan of the book. I on the other hand had limited knowledge of the story which may have helped along the way. The reason I say that is simple. You have to commit to going on this journey with Julia’s character early in the film in order for the film to remain entertaining. There are not a lot of twists in the plot nor are there paralel characters you are routing for, instead what you have with Eat Pray Love is a Julia Roberts film that has almost no scene without her in it and a few like able characters who support her along the way.
In fact, it’s so much about Julia in this film that at times I wondered if the book may have made a good dramatic weekly series instead of a movie.
Look out for wonderful performances by the always dynamic Richard Jenkins playing a former drunk Texan now an Ashram dweller and her best friend played by the charismatic Viola Davis. I should also point out that the film was directed Ryan Murphy who is credited as the creator of ‘Glee’ and although there is very little song and dance there is a Glee like energy he captures with interesting choices in framing and shooting style.
Turning to homegrown Hollywood tale, there seems to be a lot of buzz on the film Scott Pilgram vs the World.
And rightfully so. The homegrown part of what you are referring to of course is 2 fold. 1)Scott Pilgram the character was created by Toronto’s own , by way of London Ontario Brian Lee O’Mailey who craeted the character within a graphic novel and 2) the movie is set in this wonderful city. The story on the surface is fairly simple; Michael Cera plays a Toronto bass player who must battle his new girlfriend’s seven evil exes before he can finally win her heart. Along the way you’ll see some well known faces such as Anne Kendrick from Up in the Air to Jason Swartzman in an attempt to solidify the cred of this rock opera.

It’s interesting to see Brampton boy, Micheal Cera grow up over the last few years after the success of Juno and Super Bad, has he found his stride with this film
I think Micheal Cera has carved a niche for himself in the love able geek genre of movies and this film gives him a little more flexibility especially with his action chops. I think the crowd that the film is aimed for loves him and will enjoy how much Scott Pilgram as a character is developed into this unique pseudo action star with all the thrills of a video game and all the heart of a basic romantic comedy.

Finally, one of the guests expected at this year’s Toronto Film Festival is one of Bollywood’s most prolific stars, Aamir Khan who has another film releasing this weekend which he has produced. The movie is called Peepli Live and for those who don’t know Aamir Khan he was the star and producer of the Oscar nominated Lagaan 3 years ago and also starred in Deepa Mehta’s Earth. Aamir’s contribution to Bollywood can be paralled to the likes of Johnny Depp or George Clooney as he attaches himself to passion projects both behind and infront of the camera. The story centers around 2 brothers who in an effort to pay an unpaid government loan consider suicide so that their families can receive government compensation to pay the debt. After a reporter over hears the plot the village of ‘Peepli’ becomes a media circus where the country is gripped by ‘will they or won’t they’. Not your typical Bollywood movie however an entertaining one with memroable characters and an excellent comment on the state of media in India today.
the movie opens in select theatres across the city.