Hollywood finds romance in travel

On a train 'North by Northwest' and others, on a bus in 'It Happened One Night,' in Italy in 'Roman Holiday,' in Bali in 'Eat, Pray, Love' — love is all around.

February 05, 2012|By Susan King, Los Angeles Times

Though Woody Allen has long been considered the quintessential New York director, his recent movies have been set in London, Barcelona, Spain and Paris. The City of Light has given the 76-year-old filmmaker the biggest hit of his long career with 2011's acclaimed "Midnight in Paris." Owen Wilson plays a screenwriter and Rachel McAdams is his fiancée who have two vastly different experiences when they travel to Paris. He wants to stay in Paris to finish his first novel; she wants to live in Malibu. His life changes one midnight while roaming the city when he is invited to join the passengers in an antique car that pulls up next to him. Soon, he is swept up in the romance of Paris of the 1920s.

Bright lights, big Tokyo

Bill Murray gives a funny and heartfelt performance in 2003's quirky "Lost in Translation." Murray's Bob Harris is in Tokyo to do a whiskey commercial for which he'll earn $2 million. Though he's been long married, Bob is having marital issues and is alone at a swank hotel in Tokyo. But he's not alone for long when he meets Charlotte (Scarlett Johansson), who finds most of her days and even nights free at the same hotel because her husband (Giovanni Ribisi), a celebrity photographer, is on assignment in Tokyo. Though these two never develop a romantic relationship on screen, they do fall in love as they talk and talk and traverse the unusual neon-lighted metropolis. And get the hankie ready for that open-ended final scene.

Food and Bardem

Elizabeth Gilbert's memoir "Eat, Pray, Love" has a huge following. But the 2010 film based on her memoir doesn't exactly come together. What does work are the exotic locales and Javier Bardem in a romantic role. Julia Roberts plays Gilbert, a recent divorcée who decides to go on a journey of self-discovery. She eats up a storm in Italy, learns the power of prayer and the beauty of elephants in India and finds love with a hunk (Bardem) in Bali.

susan.king@latimes.com

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