| ||||||||||||||||||||||
MALL.ShopperFavorites.com
Best Prices
Shopper Favorites Web Search |
DVD : Elizabethtown (Widescreen Edition) |
- A very nice love storyAnd the acting on this one is not at all bad either...
It is sort of a "low impact" love story
where friendship flowers into something more.
I liked it... it might even become a classic?
The family and the failure of his shoe open
the hero to a new way of seeing his life.
What he thought was the end, becomes their
beginning.
Rating:
- An interesting and fun romp!I didn't think I'd like this film. Let's face it, it's billed and marketed as a 'chick flick'. However, the characters are tremendously sympathetic, the story is moving, and the 'place' is intriguing and likable.
Set in Elizabethtown Kentucky (an area I know little about), the film's premise is that in meeting his extended family, learning more about his father, beloved by the entire town, he's ready for a new chapter in his life. Orlando Bloom plays Drew Baylor, the character who has had a very bad week; first his shoe design totally flops (though I can't believe there was no test marketing to see that the shoe wouldn't sell), and then he gets bad news about his father.
On the plane to Elizabethtown, he meets a flight attendant played by the very likable Kirsten Dunst (Claire Colburn). She somehow knows that they are fated to be together, and she pretty much throws herself at him (maybe she loves shoes?). Anyway, the film proceeds on this thin plot, but the ride to the end is very likable, somewhat quirky (southern characters are almost always quirky, aren't they???), and always winning.
You are pulling for these two to end up together, in spite of a rocky path.
Four stars, mainly for the good feeling you'll be left with, and the over-all appealing characters, cinematography and art direction. Recommended, especially as a 'date' movie or as a change of pace from the usual multiplex fare.
Rating:
- For Those Who Think and FeelAfter catching parts of this at the gym cardio cinema occasionally, I was only seeing the early scenes with Kirsten Dunst. I didn't notice the feel of the movie being so similar to Crowe's other films. They make you pay attention to other peoples feelings. In these early previews, I thought this may turn into a Fatal Attraction stalker movie. Claire annoyed me despite her beauty. My goodness was I wrong! It's a feel good movie. It's supposed to make you appreciate the time you are here being alive, and for a limited time. Dunst is magnetic, what guy wouldn't like her? The quirky characters, the culture shock for the Bloom character and the up-all-night pace was riveting. A keeper for my collection!
Rating:
- Rating of 7/10Elizabethtown-7/10
I decided to watch this because it was the most recent work of Cameron Crowe. I had recently watched for the first time Almost Famous and Fast Times at Ridgemont High (Jerry Maguire I had seen years ago and it remains as one of my favorites). Elizabethtown left me feeling slightly disappointed; maybe I had high expectations for it. When it ended, I was thinking "Eh...is that it?"
Now that a few days have passed since I watched it, I was able to look back on it to appreciate some things. I didn't like how the movie bored me in several parts and was slower paced than other of Crowe's work. However it had some interesting plot ideas, like a man who has to deal with a huge failure that ruins his career when he gets the news of his father's death. Nice idea, but the execution was unsatisfying.
A few random questions about Dunst and Bloom's characters were in the back of my head by the end of the film:
-How was Kirsten Dunst's character living in a mansion when she is a stewardess?
-Why is Orlando Bloom's character almost always smiling when he was supposed to be in melancholy or some state of depression?
-Is Dunst's character normally that overly friendly, or was she stalking Bloom...
-Why doesn't Bloom have any friends?
-Is Dunst supposed to have a Southern accent?
Rating:
- What goes up must come down Mr. Crowe"Elizabethtown" by Writer/Director Cameron Crowe.
Drew Baylor (Orlando Bloom) was perceived as something of a prodigy for the shoe industry and picked up immediately after college by an international shoe company and is set loose to design his own shoe. The shoe ends up being an epic failure which is looking to cost the company almost 1 billion dollars. Drew is fired, looses his company girlfriend and decides to kill himself. As he is about to end his own life the phone rings. His hysterical sister informs Drew that his father has just died while on a trip to his home town in Kentucky, Elizabethtown, and that Drew must go their immediately to handle the family business. Drew decides to put his suicide on hold temporarily to handle the family business for his mother and sister and I guess what is intended to be a touching emotional story ensues......
Cameron Crowe is responsible for some phenomenal movies including, "Jerry Maguire", "Almost Famous", "Vanilla Sky", and "Fast Times at Ridgemont High (Widescreen Special Edition)" amongst others. "Elizabethtown" however makes me wonder if we haven't already seen Cameron's Peak. It was just a mess of a movie. It felt like he had ideas for 3 separate movies, couldn't focus on any of them for very long and then decided to take what he had on each and combine them into one movie. You are given the "Family death/crisis" movie since Drew's father died. You are given "Finding love in an unexpected place while on the rebound" movie as Drew meets Claire Colburn (Kirsten Dunst) while on his way to Kentucky, And Finally we have the "Redemption/Road trip" movie as Drew decides to drive home from Kentucky to Oregon. If you combine all of the other touched on themes and sub-plots that were never developed you may actually have about 5 partial movies in this thing. I was constantly left with the feeling that I had missed something as the sound track was insisting that a touching or powerful moment was unfolding on screen and I kept on wondering where the development for this powerful moment took place.
The Good: The actor's performances seemed solid overall. The sound track had its strong points.
The Bad: There was no cohesive plot or story to be found. Just a very meandering thing that never seemed to really get focused on what story it was trying to tell and this ruined anything positive that might have happened. I was left wondering what it was all about and what I had missed. The scene where Susan Sarandon tap dances at her husband's funeral and discusses her neighbor's equipment was also very disturbing to me for some reason. I think I would roll over in my grave if my wife turned my funeral into a self serving charade such as the one on display in Elizabethtown.
Overall: Skip this one. Maybe Crowe will redeem himself with his next project. He certainly couldn't make anything worse.
MALL.ShopperFavorites.com
|