Ari Lennox’s interpretation of Eat Pray Love tells a better story than Julia Robert’s film

 

'Americans know entertainment but don't know pleasure' – Luca Spaghetti

In the run up to the release of Ari Lennox’s second album age/sex/location, rapper and founder of record label Dreamville J.Cole, shared on Instagram a long message from the R&B singer, in which she describes the album as ‘my eat pray love journey’.

Always trying to understand every reference that I come across and looking for a movie to watch, I sat down to watch the 2010 film to discover what the phrase truly means.

Eat Pray Love starring Julia Roberts is based of Elizabeth Gilbert’s book of the same name. Unhappy in her marriage and questioning who she is and what she wants out of life Liz begins an international journey of self-discovery.


Still from Eat Pray Love. Credit:NPR.org

The Ryan Murphy written and directed drama film lethargically follows Liz as she travels across the world trying to define who she is outside of her romantic relationships.

However while on this journey, Liz is still heavily influenced by her past relationships with men. Her main reason for taking a trip to India is to visit the ashram that her younger ex-boyfriend, played by James Franco, taught her about. Unsurprisingly, she finds it difficult to connect with the source during mediation instead falling asleep.

What doesn’t help is the constant judgement of Richard from Texas(Richard Jenkins), whose constant jibes at Liz cross the line of tough love. From now on the only Richard I want to see Roberts next to is Gere.

Although Roberts brings her usual charm to the role she is unable to bring a spark of energy to the film. At the end I’m not sure if Liz truly finds herself or if she’s just going through phase like her ex-husband Stephen suggests.

age/sex/location album cover.
Credit:Amazon Music Unlimited


In terms of Lennox’s own Eat Pray Love journey, she makes it very clear from the album’s opening track POF that she has found her worth and can stand alone, ‘Independent, not dumbin' down everything that makes me grand’. The album then moves into Hoodie which sounds better within the sequence of the album than when it was released as a single. She then spends the rest of the album detailing the lessons from romantic relationships that brought her to this point in her life, to her Queen Space.

While Murphy’s film is long and drawn out, Ari Lennox’s album succinctly and beautiful tells her journey to self-love.


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