Review of Elizabethtown (2005) by Lukechristiansc — 21 Aug 2015

Cameron Crowe's romantic-comedy road trip picture is touching, moving and emotional but it does suffer with the cliche's, but writer-director Mr. Crowe has a big heart when it comes to making a story about when you get lost and finding your way back up again into a film.

It succeeds as a comedy but somehow as a drama it doesn't because it's predictable, you know were it's going to go but Crowe wants you forget the cliches and want you to focus more on the characters and the situations their going through and care for them also relate to, he succeeds at that when the cliches start popping back up again it makes you groan and it's just so irritating.

Orlando Bloom plays Drew, a shoe designer who is on a flight to Kentucky, where his father died of a heart attack, during a family visit. Kristen Dunst plays Claire Colburn, the only flight attendant who meets Drew on a deserted plan, where he is the only one passenger on that plane.

He just wants to be alone. She insists he moves up first class, coddles him, makes bright, and she starts a lovely conversation with him. Drew was about to commit suicide on the death exercise bike machine, when the phone call came in about his father's death.

He is a successful young shoe designer of the Spasmodica shoe, a popular world-wide shoe but a new product that his boss Phil (Alec Baldwin) informs him that he'll lose $972 million. Drew's suicide plan is now going to wait for the visit to Elizabethtown, where his father is related to half of the population and the best friend on the other half.

His mom Hollie (Susan Sarandon) is still hated because she took her husband away from his hometown and family to California. Drew is sent there to represent his mom and his sister's wishes for Mitch's funeral against Mitch's extended family.

Ultimately, Claire may not only help Drew get through the arrangements of his father's funereal, but she does provide Drew with a different perspective of his life and drifting him away from his thoughts of suicide.

While this movie is a cliche'd drama it does get emotional and works for me, Bloom isn't the great at acting but he's is good at drama and he should be in these roles more often; him and Dunst has decent chemistry on screen which makes the film even more better.

It may not be the best film Crowe has ever made and maybe not Oscar "worthy" but it's Golden Globes "worthy" like I said not the best Cameron Crowe movie, but it proves he is one of the best directors.

It's skillful reverence of deep beauty melancholy dipped in reality.