Movie Review: Elizabethtown (3 of 5)

Elizabethtown is a chick flick. In one sense, they're all the same. In another sense, they're all slightly different, and some things work, and some things really do not.

Most chick flicks do not start out with the guy losing his company a billion dollars. This has potential. Most chick flicks also do not revolve around the death of the guy's dad, and the ensuing family relations and squabbles and funerals and memorial services. And now we know why. It's just kind of an awkward clash ~ not only the death with the romance but the comic relief with with death ~ you're not always sure whether you're supposed to be sad or laughing.

The romance is much more entertaining, and it's too bad it didn't get more focus. Kirsten Dunst is hilarious as a too-forward slightly-crazy flight attendant with a halfway-consistent Southern accent. Orlando Bloom is also fun to watch in a rare swordless role, espeically in some animated moments (There's nothing quite like watching this sword- and bow-wielding elf/pirate erupt in frustration and bang his horn after missing an exit and getting lost by a cornfield).

Elizabethtown is also smartly modern. Cell phones are a major part of their relationship. Crowe maximizes the potentials of cell phone multi-tasking to humourous effect, as they talk for hours. The relationship is also refreshingly non-physical, for a large part, at least. Yes, they make out eventually, but for a time just get to know each other and even refrain from a kiss at one point, as Dunst says, "Didn't it feel better when we didn't do something impulsive?"

Overall, the move is entertaining, but the death/family subplot is too much of a distraction, and when the travel-deprived Bloom leaves town and goes on a "road trip" specifically designed for him by Dunst, complete with a map/scrapbook/mix CDs package that is sweet (in both senses of the word), you find yourself wishing the movie had more of this sort of thing. The mini bits of language and sexual references are also a distraction, enhanced by the fact that the rest of the movie is laregly void of them (For example, I would not criticize I, Robot for the language so much because it's an action movie with language throughout. Here, it's a mostly innocent romance with a few random words thrown in.)

Elizabethtown, then, is an anomaly. It's a typical chick flick with several twists and differences, some funny and some distracting. It's up to you. Not that September/October 2005 have had much else to offer...

Edmond the Hun