Movie-Elizabethtown

Elizabethtown (2005) starring Orlando Bloom and Kirsten Dunst really brought out two very different reactions in me. First of all, Cameron Crowe is really one of my favorite directors. When he does a great job, it is phenomenal. But this is not his best movie.

In fact, it seems like two different movies to me, one that I very much liked, and one that I thought was so make believe and hokey that I felt it could only be conceived in Hollywood.

I'll start with the good first I guess and tell a little of the plot. Orlando Bloom is this shoe company exec that makes a really bad decision and loses a billion bucks for the company. He gets fired and his dad dies on the same day. His family lives in Oregon and he has to go to Kentucky where his dad was visiting relatives when he died, to pick up the body. On the way there, he meets flight attendant, Kirsten Dunst, perky and slightly irritating. And this is the part of the story I liked. Because when they clicked, it was right.

The night the two spend all night talking on the phone is the perfect perfect night of discovery...finding out who you are and who this person is...what you have in common and what you both laugh at. I think we all remember nights like that with the one we love...where we just wanted to stay that way forever and keep going...where you felt you could be yourself and never have to put on airs again. I really liked the way these two characters related.

And I did not mind the culture shock the south has on Blooms character of Drew. He is overwhelmed by the "kinfolk" and the outpouring of feeling and food and celebration and ceremony. What I did not like at all was the actual ceremony celebrating the father's death. Mom (Susan Sarandon) and sis fly in for a memorial in a convention hall, and mom gets up there for this god awful monologue.

Now, this is supposed to be a few days after her beloved husband of many years has just died. And it seems like she has gone all the way through every stage of grief there is is and come out on the other side, clean as a whistle. It was terrible...the scened sticks in my craw and makes the rest of the movie reek a bit, just stinking it up. Honestly, this scene brought down the caliber of this movie by at least a couple of stars. If that had been better done, the movie would have been a much better film in my estimation. And if I could somehow excise the segment, I would like this movie quite a bit.

I do have to note that Sharlynn felt that the movie was also worthwhile for Orlando Bloom alone. Just had to mention that from her perspective. To which I say...whatever...I'm trying to write a serious review here! HA!

As I said...almost like two movies for me in this one piece...and if I could separate them, one would be quite good, and the other terrible.