D.C. MOVIE GUYS

JOE REVIEW: “ELIZABETHTOWN”

Director and screenwriter Cameron Crowe has brought some of the funniest and most humane and human fillms to arrive in theaters in recent years. “Fast Times at Ridgemont High”, his 1982 debut film as a screenwriter, mat seem a raunchy teen comedy on the surface, but its characters and situations revealed a certain compassion and sense of humor about the emotional extremes that high school life inflicts on all of us.

“Say Anything”, “Jerry Maguire” and “Almost Famous” share this quality of gently and humorously examining characters at their best and worst, as they struggle to make sense of life and all sorts of relationships. This affection for the humanity in all of us runs throughout Crowe’s new film, “Elizabethtown”.

Orlando Bloom stars as Drew, a rising boy wonder working for a global Nike-like athletic shoe company. The project he’s worked on for several years, a rvolutionary new shoe, has just bee released-to global disinterest and a gigantic company stock loss. On the same day he learns he’s being fired and his seemingly company provided girlfriend ditches him, he is told his father has died and he must go collect the body.

Drew heads for Elizabethtown, Kentucky, his father’s hometown, where he was visiting his brother when he died. Things have always been a bit strained between Drew’s mother (Susan Sarandon) and his father’s family, so he’s entrusted to carry out his family’s wishes. But his father’s relatives and friends don’t make that easy. They worshiped Drew’s father and don’t understand his wishes to be creamated, for example. Drew must deal with all this while trying to figure out what path his life will take.

Help comes in the form of Clarie ( a radient Kirsten Dunst), an airline stewardess Drew meets on his way to Elizabethtown. She becomes hiis traveling companion while on a layover and helps him to begin to see himself and others in a different light. Will that light lead these very different people towards each other? That’s just one question to be considered on the journey that is this movie.

Crowe takes his time in weaving this tale. It ambles along at a gentle pace, offfering thought provoking observations about life, love, family and the definition of a sucessfully lived life. Bloom does some of his best work in years here, while Dunst is full of charm, mixed with a gentle vunerablity. They have a terrific chemistry together. Solid supporting work is done by Sarandon, Alec Baldwin as Drew’s boss and Bruce McGill as a shady fiend of Drew’s father.

A rich and soulful soundtrack of blues, country, rock and pop standards is an additional asset for the film. “Elizabethtown” is the kind of film that won’t be everyone’s cup of tea. Like a well loived life, it rambles on at its own sweet pace. But, if you’re willing to go with it, you’ll find yourself rewarded with a genial fable about just how precious life can be.
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~Joe Barber

MPAA RATING: PG-13 for profanity and sexual situations.
JOE’S RATING: THREE AND A HALF STARS.

Related Reading:

Short Guide to Writing About Film, A (7th Edition)

Color Your Own Classic Movie Posters

Film Directing: Shot by Shot: Visualizing from Concept to Screen (Michael Wiese Productions)

Pride and Prejudice: Music from the Motion Picture Soundtrack

Art of the Modern Movie Poster: International Postwar Style and Design