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Cameron Crowe strikes again with this touching story of a young man arranging his popular father's funeral. The beautiful thing about Crowe's movies is that I could tell you the entire plot down to the smallest detail right here and now, and I would still tell you to see the movie because it's not about the plot. It's about the people in it. Like Jerry Maguire, Elizabethtown starts out with tragedy. A hard-working up-and-comer in the shoe industry finds out his father has died and must travel to *gasp* Elizabethtown in order to sort out the funeral arrangements while wrestling his own life's problems. In spite of Orlando Bloom's performance, I still feel like he's trying to find his feet as an actor. He can play the moment, but he can't quite make the character come alive. Kirsten Dunst, on the other hand, is wonderfully neurotic and the type of person that just about everyone likes to be around. If you don't love her at first, you will by the end of the movie because she grows on you. Like ivy. Susan Sarandon was her usual exemplary self as the widow who realizes her own mortality and wants to start doing everything that she always meant to do with her life: cooking, tapdancing, car repair. All at the same time. But the real joy of the movie is all the various and achingly real characters that Cameron Crowe brings to life with effortless ease. You will laugh everytime you see "Chuck and Cindy" referenced. I promise. So here are my answers: Repeat viewings? Sure. There were enough Movie Moments to make a second time worthwhile. It's probably even worth buying later. Bring a date? Without a doubt. While I personally don't have a problem watching movies like this by myself, I highly recommend having someone along to interlace fingers with. And now, the Simile Scale: Violence: It's about as violent as a Wiggles concert. Sex: Like the first time you bumped foreheads while going in for a kiss. Cute and subtle. Humor: Like it was wrought from the belly of the giggle monster. Language: Like the dinosaurs. Extinct. |