I actually hate the term chick flick. It’s reductive and stupid and always makes me feel dumb when I say it. If I expect people to approach cinema on its own terms then I figure I have to approach everything on it’s own terms, and so I try not to ghettoize anything. Except The Pianist.
But when you’re dealing with something like a film based on the book Eat, Pray, Love, which is like Fear of Flying for the post-feminist, post-PC set (it’s all about balance, (wo)man, and finding yourself) there’s really nowhere to go for refuge but ‘chick flick’.
Ironically for a project like this, which is based on a hugely popular book, the thing hasn’t been particularly on firm ground. It was actually put into turnaround at Paramount earlier this year. But now it’s back, with Julia Roberts starring and Ryan Murphy writing and directing.
Oh, and with Richard Jenkins [via Variety], which is the whole point of this article in the first place. Jenkins will play a Texan encountered by Julia Roberts at an Ashram. That’s in the second phase of the story, after the heroine has divorced, then spent time in Italy eating and hanging out with people. If this were Erica Jong, there’d at least be a handful of zipless fucks, but this time we might have to settle for a less.