Elizabethtown stars Orlando Bloom as Drew Baylor, a young shoe designer whose world has just completely fallen apart. Not only is his much heralded new design concept about to become the biggest flop (not flip-flop, I might add) in the shoe world since.. well, ever, but also his father has just died. He’s off to make arrangements for the cremation and bring his father home. However, the other side of the family have never got on with his side very well, so nerves are fraught even before he gets there…
On his flight there he meets slightly dotty air hostess Claire Colburn (Kirsten Dunst), and of course fate throws them together. Thus Drew learns about life and love, while Claire.. well, she just stays the same, perhaps even getting a bit stranger. Drew’s mother, Hollie (Susan Sarandon) has plenty of emotions to contend with, not only the loss of her husband, and his sister Heather (played by the beautiful and talented Judy Greer) seems to be relying on him more than ever. (This tends towards interfering with Drew’s plans, but I won’t tell you what they are…) On the other side of the family there are strong opinions and ancient feuds. Then of course there’s the marriage party at the hotel he’s staying at and his relationship with Claire (and his ex-girlfriend) to think about…
Though having a lad from Wiltshire playing an American seems a rather strange choice in some ways, I think that as a human (he was of course perfect as an elf!) this is Orlando Blooms’ best performance so far – not that I’ve seen all that many. He portrays Drew with a quiet desperation that fits the character well. There are some other star performances here, including a brief but memorable turn from none other than Alec Baldwin (haven’t seen him in a film for aaaaages!) as the boss of the shoe firm, and Jed Rees as newlywed Chuck. Kirsten Dunst, who is one of my favourite actresses, is however rather annoying the whole way through, which was a bit disappointing.
While the performances were, on the whole, good, the plot was rather meandering and ill-paced. There are some wonderful moments surrounded by mediocre minutes. There is some clever dialogue hidden in there amongst quite a lot of mundane babble. The whole film is like that – even Susan Sarandon’s speech at the wake veered from touching and / or funny to being the sort of manipulative drivel she spouted by the grave in Steel Magnolias. Just when the movie makes you think it’s levelled out to be a run-of-the-mill film it hits you with something brilliant, then when you think it might just be starting to become something special, it goes back to being mundane.
Overall watching Elizabethtown was a slightly frustrating experience, as it continually hinted at the heights it could have risen to, but failed to stay there for long. It’s worth seeing as it’s never terrible and occasionally wonderful, but 3 stars is all it really deserves. Worth watching, but not worth going out of your way to watch.
Other Info
Directed by: Cameron Crowe (Vanilla Sky, Almost Famous, Jerry McGuire)
Length: 123 minutes (felt a bit over-long)
MPAA: Rated PG-13 for language and some sexual references.
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