“Elizabethtown,” the latest endeavor by director Cameron Crowe, manages to greatly up the standards for any films that will be released later this year. From its darkly comedic beginning to its bittersweet end, this film manages to impress on all levels, leaving the viewer content with the price of admission.
The film is the story of Drew Baylor (Orlando Bloom), who finds himself faced with twin tragedies – he has been fired from his well-paying job designing shoes, and, more importantly, his father has just died. To complicate matters, someone from his family has to fly out to Elizabethtown to put the patriarchal father to rest. Naturally, the responsibility falls on Drew.
While the story opens with events layered in tragedy, here presented in an ironically fresh and light way, the tale is not so much about loss as it is about gaining something. With the help of Claire Colburn (Kirsten Dunst), Baylor is launched into a journey of discovery that ultimately showcases the bonds that family and love can create.
As might be inferred from the above praise, the movie manages to cover all these plot points in style, avoiding typical cliches and offering something new and fresh for audiences to enjoy.
One of the strongest points of the film is the veritable soul that it manages to convey. This is no doubt due in part to Crowe’s relationship with the film. He has described it as a personal piece, and indeed, almost every character in the movie echoes someone from his own life. The mother, the cousins, the main character and the relatives all have a real-life equivalent. Most importantly, the father that Baylor has to put to rest in the film mirrors Crowe’s own father, who the director never really had a chance to know. As the director states, however, “It is never too late to know your parent,” and the film is just as much a journey for the main character as it is for its creator.
This very personal feeling unites with clever dialogue and witty insight, resulting in a combination that elevates the movie to even further greatness. While it is somewhat off-putting seeing Bloom without his trademark English accent, he plays his character with such talent that it’s hard to believe him speaking any other way. The rest of the characters also manage to be comparatively convincing, the most notable performance going to Kirsten Dunst for her ability to make her character eternally optimistic without simultaneously being unbearable. Matched with consistently original dialogue that avoids tired jokes, every moment of the two-hour film is memorable.
There is one shortcoming, however, that stops the movie from being one of the best of the year, and that is that most of the material at the end lacks the energy the film had previous to getting there. The scenario where the protagonist goes on a road trip to discover more about himself is not boring in any sense, but after the film’s previous events, it feels as if the tale has been fleshed out as fully as it needs to be. While the sequence adds some character development and heart the film would otherwise lack, it sacrifices what makes the film such an enjoyable ride. After all, at the end of a rollercoaster, no one really wants five miles of flat track.
This should not dissuade you from seeing the movie, however. Though it may have a few flaws, “Elizabethtown” is a movie to be cherished and remembered. In one of his first personal pieces, director Cameron Crowe manages to do a fitting job with what he describes as “a tribute to my dad.” Indeed, his father would be proud.
