Sometimes it takes the right kind of film to show off a culture. To help provide us with something that we didn't even know we were missing, and at the same time open our eyes to what is around us. Elizabethtown is one of those films, as it explores how our minds work in regards to love, loss, and life in general. It isn't an easy to film to define, and honestly a lot of critics and comedians have made fun of it, because you can't really define what the film is about in a couple of sentences. From the first previews that hit theaters, I couldn't really blame people for this conclusion either, because I didn't have a concrete answer for what the story was about either. However, knowing a semblance of what it was about was enough for me, and I was actually pretty excited to see the film. With Orlando Bloom and Kirsten Dunst in the film, both actors that I have liked in many other films, this looked like it would be a very cute story that could keep my attention for the duration, and I was going to give it a chance. This was a decision that I am really glad I went with.

Elizabethtown has a focus on one main character, Drew Baylor (Orlando Bloom), who has worked for a shoe company for the last 8 years of his life. Due to something that he created, a product that ends up failing miserably, he is fired from a position he had dedicated his life to. Instead of focusing on hobbies and having a circle of friends, he buried himself in his work, and when he loses that, he doesn't have anywhere else to turn. One of the casualties of his busy work schedule was his relationship with his father. Holidays became less important to Drew, keeping in touch became less of a priority, and he had drifted very far from his Father. Basically, he no longer knew the man who had raised him, and it wasn't something that he thought about until a phone call the same night he was fired. His Father had died suddenly of a heart attack, and with his Mother in denial, Drew was tasked with retrieving his Dad from the town he had been visiting at the time; Elizabethtown.

Elizabethtown, Kentucky is a relatively small town, way of the main roads, where everyone knows everybody else. They are a very close community, and when something happens there, everyone knows about it, and everyone wants to take part in the events that surround it. With Drew's dad, they had a man whom everybody respected, loved, and even admired. With his passing it left a void in the town, and everyone felt the loss in a different way. This included the town friends, family, and acquaintances. This came as a huge surprise to Drew, because he didn't expect so many people to feel so strongly about his dad, let alone care about his passing. Having lived in Oregon with his mother, father, and sister for the past 27 years, he had never got to know the family that lived out East. Everything was foreign to him, and this was going to be a very trying experience to deal with so many people, at the same time his life was crumbling around him. But he found an angel along the way in the form of Claire Colburn (Kirsten Dunst). Meeting her first on the plane to Kentucky, she had slipped him her phone number without Drew realizing it. Lonely in his hotel room in Elizabethtown, he picks up the phone and calls her, not expecting anything more than a conversation.

To explain Claire, she is a free spirit, always making intelligent comments, and continuously trying to get to know people that she finds interesting. In Drew, she has discovered someone that she can talk to about anything and everything, and being appreciative about that experience, almost reaches out to him in a fashion that she wouldn't normally do. Some might consider her quirky or to over-the-top, but I really loved her personality, and I fell for her character right from the start. When her interactions with Drew began to evolve that too became a focus of the movie, as a friendship started to develop between the two of them. This was something that they both needed, and the conversations were so true to life that it really captured the essence of the film. Dealing with the loss of his former life and his father, being thrust into a family situation that was strange and scary to him, and meeting this woman who was like nothing he had ever seen before all lead Drew down a path that he could never have expected. To the audience this is exactly what we wanted to see happen, and as the story further unrolled in front of us, it became simply beautiful.

Elizabethtown was not at all what I had expected walking into the theater, and it was far better than I had heard the critics say about it. It is the type of film that stays with you for quite a while afterwards in a good way, and you end up thinking back to moments of the film fondly, contemplating just how good it really was. When I say this is a story about love, loss, and life I mean that the story cannot be pigeonholed into being about one thing. There are many sub-plots to the film, even more stories that evolve around Drew at the center, and many subtle nuances that really take this movie to the next level in my opinion. For some, this may lead to a required second viewing, but I "got" the film the first time through, and know that when I get the chance I am going to want to see it a second time. With great Direction from Cameron Crowe, great acting by Orlando Bloom, Kirsten Dunst, and Susan Sarandon as Drew's mother, Elizabethtown is one of the 2005 films that absolutely cannot be missed. The filming was beautiful, the character development superb, and the scenery just put it over the top. I highly recommend seeing Elizabethtown because it has everything that makes a great movie, and it is far deeper than many I have seen recently. Give it a chance if you love movies like this, and I feel you will walk away extremely satisfied.






Recommended: Yes