I just returned from seeing Elizabethtown with Organizer Daughter and her friend. First piece of advice: don’t go see this movie with your fourteen year old daughter if either you or she is easily embarrassed. However, I’m not so easily embarrassed, so I enjoyed it immensely. I don’t think there’s anything really immoral in the movie; one questionable scene, I chose to interpret in the best possible light. However, there is some bad language, and there are some very funny, but not at all tasteful, jokes. End of warning.
Elizabethtown has a problem because it has dueling themes. It’s a romance movie, a chick flick, but it’s also about fathers and sons and about success and how it is defined. So you just have to enjoy each theme as it comes up and then switch gears for the romantic parts. I didn’t find it difficult, but some people might be annoyed. The movie takes place mostly in Kentucky, and the Southern country atmosphere was done just about right. The moviemakers don’t make fun of Southern-ness, but they do make it enjoyable, sometimes hilarious, especially when you’re from the South or near-South and can see the parts that are exactly right. The big hair, the casseroles, the house full of pictures on every wall, the overdone wedding and funeral, and the summertime clothes are all shown with a light touch that enjoys Southern culture and gently allows Southerners to laugh at themselves.
The acting was adequate to good. Even at my age, I think Orlando Bloom is cute, but sometimes in this movie he just seemed to be going through the motions that he read in the script that day. I found a couple of scenes to be frankly unbelievable, but a better actor might have been able to pull them off. Kirsten Dunst, on the other hand, is not one of my favorite actresses, but I thought she was wonderful in Elizabethtown. Her character could have become a caricature of a half-crazy romantic distraction a la Audrey Hepburn, but she did it seriously enough to avoid going off into silliness, yet funny enough to be endearing. Susan Sarandon, as the mom in the movie, has a great comic scene funeral scene. You’ll have to see it to believe it, and it’s a little over the top even then.
We were discussing the influence that movies have on us, both good and bad, in worldview class today. Elizabethtown made me decide to live more, to be more whimsical, to appreciate Engineer Husband and the romance in my own life. I think that’s a good influence. I recommend Elizabethtown for adults and mature teens who would enjoy a romantic comedy with a few lessons thrown in for good measure.
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Orlando seems like a pretty nice guy. I hope he can handle all the fame and fortune stuff and not loose himself. I wish he would take some time and work for a few seasons at Stratford on Avon as “Spear carrier #2” or some other minor role and learn more about his craft. He keeps saying how much he is learning about from Brad Pitt and Johnny Depp. Uggh… I think he would do well to look to Ian Holm or any of the other fantastic British actors who have worked their way up the hard way. They REALLY know what they are doing. He is lovely to look at though. I am also looking forward to Paula Dean.