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Elizabethtown [2005]
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From the start of Elizabethtown, big contrasts are evoked: death and life, success and failure are side by side, so we're told. When the movie starts, Drew Baylor (Orlando Bloom) is experiencing failure and death in spades: the shoe he spent eight years designing for Mercury (a thinly-veiled copy of Nike) has been recalled, costing his company $972 million dollars. On the verge of a suicide attempt, he learns his father has died, and Drew flies to Kentucky to retrieve the body to Oregon for cremation. On the red-eye to Louisville he meets Claire Colburn (Kirsten Dunst), a perky flight attendant with a charming flair for cute lines ("I'm impossible to forget, but I’m hard to remember," she chirps). Once in Elizabethtown, Drew tries to plan a memorial while dealing with relatives who have their own agenda in addition to his manic family back in Oregon, all while facing the reality that in a few days he'll be known nationally as one of his industry's most legendary failures. Yet still he manages to connect with Claire on an all-night cell phone conversation--complete with the requisite watching of the sunrise--and to strike up a furtive romance. So we now have death and life side by side. But despite these dramatic shifts, what sets up to be a roller coaster ride of a film flattens out to a milquetoast middle ground with no real life of its own. Drew Baylor has suffered two tragic personal losses in the course of one day, but you wouldn't know it from Bloom's lethargic performance. There's not much to Claire either. Her whole character is made up mostly of cutesy quotable lines and mysterious little smirks. In the end, Elizabethtown is a film that doesn't know what it wants to be, and unfortunately there's no payoff, other than a few memorable lines and a great soundtrack.--Dan Vancini
RRP: £19.99
Our Price: £0.98 (subject to change)
Editorial
Amazon.co.uk Review
Elizabethtown has all of the elements of a great Cameron Crowe movie, but none of the Cameron Crowe vision that made Almost Famous work. It's mostly a series of sweet moments, each capped with the right song at the right time; in fact, the soundtrack is the real star of the movie, and the right song is all there is to piece together a film that is much less than the sum of its parts.
Excellent! Don't listen to the stupid people
Review date: 2008-09-17 Rating: 10 out of 10
I can't believe my eyes. All these bad reviews for what can really only be described as a sincere, heartwarming tale. No, it's not high drama, and may be unrealistic, but a lot of films are supposed to represent a FANTASY to get the mind going (if you have one).
Don't like this concept? Why are you watching movies at all? Go watch the news for realism and get totally depressed about our crappy world. Leave the rest to enjoy themselves any way they can, while they can.
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Reviews
Sentimental, but not worthless
Review date: 2008-08-10 Rating: 6 out of 10
This sweet though overwrought and sentimental paean to small town America is hardly a great film, but it does have its moments. The beginning seems almost a satire of Crowe's previous "Jerry Maguire": Orlando Bloom plays Drew Baylor, a hot shot shoe designer at a Nike-like company that sees its latest sport shoe bomb, causing its company to lose one billion dollars overnight. Fired by the company's CEO (a nice cameo by Alec Baldwin), he contemplates suicide by inserting a knife into his exercise bike. But before he succeeds, he receives a call from his sister informing him their father has died. Flying to the small town in Kentucky (the titular Elizabethtown) where the funeral will be held, he meets a quirky and flirty air stewardess (the sort you never find in real life), played by Kirsten Dunst, whom he will eventually fall in love, after one of the longest mobile phone calls in history. The movie celebrates, a bit too pompously, the values of small town America. The best thing in the movie is the acting by Bloom and Dunst; the worst is the acting by Susan Sarandon (playing Drew's insufferable mother) and its sentimentality.
Another story about an awakening from the amazing Cameron Crowe!
Review date: 2008-07-12 Rating: 10 out of 10
I really don't understand the poor reviews of this wonderful film. Maybe they just don't get it. It is a bit quirky, sentimental and wasn't very successful, but so what! It's beautiful, heartfelt and bloody GREAT! :O) Watch it and love it. Plus Kirsten Dunst must be the most charming actress by a billion miles!!
Enjoyable
Review date: 2008-06-22 Rating: 6 out of 10
Even though this film had more padding than a 15 foot sofa, I did find it quite charming and ultimately enjoyable.
Bloom's charisma = glass of sour milk
Review date: 2008-03-27 Rating: 2 out of 10
Imagine the Jerry Maguire "you complete me" scene extened for 2.5 hours, with the jokes removed.
And drippy-puppy actor Orlando Bloom in the lead role ,with Kisten Dunst trying to create a spark of chemistry.
This is a poor movie, and I once thought Cameron Crowe (Vanilla Sky) was a good director. Recommended for young girls with a low IQ.
Product Details/Specifications
Actor(s):
Loudon Wainwright
Orlando Bloom
Paul Schneider
Kirsten Dunst
Tom Cruise
Creators:
Orlando Bloom (Primary Contributor)
Paul Schneider (Primary Contributor)
Director(s):
Recording label: Paramount Home Entertainment (UK)
Manufacturer: Paramount Home Entertainment (UK)
EAN: 5014437874832
Binding: DVD
Number of items: 1
Format: Anamorphic, PAL,
Release date: 2006-02-06
Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
Audience rating: Suitable for 12 years and over
Region code: 2
Running time: 118 minutes
Theatrical release date: 2005
Language: Danish (Subtitled)
Language: Dutch (Subtitled)
Language: English (Subtitled)
Language: Finnish (Subtitled)
Language: Norwegian (Subtitled)
Language: Swedish (Subtitled)
Language: English (Original Language)