Simply A Masterpiece

Purely Joyful Movie!

This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

The movie really just wants to entertain people.

I'm not here to challenge the opinions of those reviews which have been posted rather I would simply say I've seen quite a few movies of my time and think Cameron Crowe is the most consistent producer (writer/director not actual "producer" but I'm sure he does his share of production work) of quality films.While I wasn't a particularly Huge fan of the "Vanilla Sky" or "We bought a Zoo" projects, I can say that the films produced in the past such as "Singles", "Jerry Maguire" and of course "Almost Famous" are legendary in their aspects of capturing the "human condition" at its best. His most recent endeavor is a made for Showtime TV series called "Roadies" which is excellent!However I believe his best work to date has been the creation of "Elizabethtown" it's a wonderful film but is really indescribable. Which is probably the reason why when I saw the posters on it some 12 years ago, I couldn't understand what the film was all about. The concept of the film was indescribable to me on the poster and I don't really recall it being marketed all that well on television to promote it or I certainly would have ventured out to see it in the theater. However it disappeared so quickly (I mean it cost twice as much as it actually grossed in this country according to the figures given on I am IMDb), so try and find it after the first two weeks it was released.All I can say is after seeing it on DVD (I've probably seen it 20 times) it simply is a most appealing film if you have a brain and the heart. That could be the reason it was not an overwhelming favorite of critics cause they may be trained to "leave both those items at the door". If I were to tell someone about this film I would merely say it's about a young man who loses his job and his father in the first 15 minutes of the film, but in the next two hours discovers whole lot more. That's really all I can say about it because to describe it further, is just pouring out words over text or paper. It's sort of like "Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind". Trying to decide what "that" movie is about and what it brings the viewer in to see our two different aspects.- The End

Whatever this film intended to be, it missed its mark regally. If the first 20 Minutes held an unsure promise of a light romantic comedy, then the remaining one hundred tedious ones not only dash this hope, but insist on introducing, then butchering, other genres, from "road movie" to "small-town idyll" to "self-discovery trip".Although Drew, played by Mr Orlando Bloom, manages to portray a more or less sympathetic if innocuously lightweight character, and Ms Dunst, as Claire, probably couldn't help coming across as sweet to save her life, describing the rest of the cast as one-dimensional would be giving credit where none is due. Ms Sarandon, as Drew's father's distraught widow Hollie, shows not a hint of the talent we have seen from her so often, not that story or dialogue give her much of an opportunity of doing so, and the inhabitants of Elizabethtown attempt the portrayal of a combination of lovable stereotypes and dysfunctional small-town caricatures without ever managing to convey even the canned emotions associated with these clichés.Beyond that, what remains is an exhausting feeling of relief glimpsing the final credits. After two hours of a downhill ride in which every scene seems the low point of the film, only to be outdone by the next one, it is reminiscent of the five stages of grief without the opportunity to bargain. If the first half of the movie splashes along, alternating between an over-the-phone love story, fittingly lacking intelligent dialogue, a flaky widow somewhere between denial and atonement, and the burial of a man whom we have never met nor care about by a group of people we haven't met and do not care about either, not to mention the side-story of the marriage of a couple who we, yes one might have guessed, didn't care about in the first place.Had this been all, then this film could well queue up with so many other below-average romantic comedies destined for afternoon showing on local weekend television or to gather digital dust in some discount pay-per-view collection, but regrettably the coasting downhill ride is about to pick up pace.The film's initial climax, for lack of a more apposite word, begins with a memorial service attended by all the culprits. A series of uninspired eulogies lead up to Hollie's speech before the assembled Elizabethtowners which invariably prompts vicarious embarrassment, similar to the impulse one gets of turning down the sound when some reality show nitwit intentionally, or worse unintentionally, makes a fool of himself. But a Susan Sarandon, recounting stories of erections, followed by singing and tap-dancing her way through the remainder of the eulogy is not the grand finale, but only a further low point with worse to come. This vaudevillian fiasco, followed by a would-be rock band composed of assorted relatives, culminates in a giant papier-mâché dove setting fire to the ball room and sending all guests scurrying for the exits; Deus ex machina meets Carrie. The final ten or so minutes of a denouement turned road trip is spent on Drew's paper chase across the mid-west which manages to pack all the shallowest clichés of an Americana apology into a condensed Smörgåsbord appealing only to the most undiscerning viewer.On the bright side, there is one thing the viewer may cling to: after 123 minutes … it is over.

There is a great sucking sound as young corporate player Drew Baylor (Orlando Bloom) realizes he is going to get fired. His mega company gave him carte blanche as a wiz kid to go ahead with a sneaker idea that are foot Edsels and he loses his company millions. Fired , his ingenious attempt at suicide fails in a Buster Keaton silent movie type way (Buster jumped into a six- inch lake and it was tragically funny) but here the joke is a mechanical knife that goes limp at the critical moment. To add insult to injury Drew's long lost father dies; Drew's family phones and pleads for him to take care of funeral arrangements. Nary a tear is shed as Drew dutifully books a flight to small Elizabethtown via Lu'ville, Kentucky. As he is in the air, flight attendant (or angel?) Claire's (Kirsten Dunst) mouth twists in amusement as she sees him as the only passenger in coach and cajoles him to move up to first class to save her tootsies wear and tear, while her eyes make merry snapshots of life's piquant moments. At deboarding she awards him "wings" along with her phone number and some great driving instructions which he intends to ignore. He soon gets royally lost in Kentucky and calls upon her, and slowly realizes that she is infusing energy into him with her Cheshire cat like grin which she uses to baffle all detractors. Here the plot nose dives as if a seven- forty- seven full of Southern family members all crash in Elizabethtown, Kentucky, and everyone is walking around in a numb daze while the story tries to catch up with the tragedy of not having much of a third act; but never mind, the story is the journey.

Drew Baylor (Orlando Bloom) is a shoe designer who is taking all the blame for a $972 million fiasco. The shoe is a joke and he's going to be publicly humiliated. Then he gets the news that his father died. He needs to go to Ketucky to get his body. On the flight there, he meets lovely flight attendant Claire Colburn (Kirsten Dunst).This is a wonderful near miss from writer/director Cameron Crowe. There are great ideas in this movie, but it gets hampered by very bad fakeness. The first, the most obvious, and the most annoying is the shoe idea. What kind of shoe would cost a company $1 billion? The thing in the movie is a complete miss. It's obviously trying to be quirky, but it has no relationship with reality. Cameron could have used something more real like a car. Shoes are sold by celebrities. Everybody knows this since Jordan. Maybe if it was toxic to wear and people got sick from wearing them. Maybe then it would be more realistic.Once the movie gets to Kentucky, the in-laws are a grab bag. Mostly they are fillers. The movie don't seem to understand this. It spends way too much time with them. On the hand, Susan Sarandon and Judy Greer playing his mother and sister have the right kind of tone. They are a bit of comic relief. And Sarandon has one of the better eulogies.Then we get to Kirsten Dunst. She plays the ingénues perfectly well. Of course, she's the origins of 'The Manic Pixie Dream Girl'. I wouldn't call her manic. She should have been called Magical. It's a movie device.There are also too many montages. I'm not specifically calling out the last part of the movie although it could be shorter. Cameron Crowe would be better off saving some of that for another movie. I'm talking about using music instead of dialog. I'm talking about using snippets of phrases instead of a conversation. The night Drew and Claire talked all night on the phone is probably where they fell in love. It deserves a well written exchange.Cameron is trying for something beautiful and poetic. At times, this movie has that. But it keeps on oscillating between a hit and miss.