OldBoy

First, I cannot for the life of me understand why "Elizabethtown" did so poorly. Maybe it was the marketing because I had no idea this movie would move me as much as it did.

I have always loved Cameron Crowe. Nothing I have seen of his has made me think he is nothing less that an incredible filmmaker. And to know that so much is rooted in his personal experiences makes it all the more endearing.

"Elizabethtown" cements this fact and sees Crowe come full circle into cinema maturity. This movie was the very best of "Say Anything" , "Singles" , "Jerry Maguire" , the beginning of "Vanilla Sky" and especially "Almost Famous" !

How can you not be moved by such fluid acting, a sweet story, and kick ass soundtrack. Judy Greer was good, the guy from "Timecop", Bruce McGill was good, Orlando was good, Susan was marvelous, and Kirsten Dunst was simply perfection.

She carried the movie with the ease of a bird through wind. She was so charming and syrupy sweet, but not so much that you wanted to puke. She brought out a slightly wooden Orlando. Every scene she was in was just magnificent. She was even, dare I say, "whimsical". I couldn't take my eyes off her. I really never knew she had it in her. She was incredible. This movie was incredible. I laughed, I cried, and through it all I smiled...a lot! I didn't exactly know where it was going all of the time, but I was so glad to stay for the ride. It ended the way it was suppoded to and when it did I was sorry to see it go.

I enjoy Crowe so much. I loved "Almost Famous" and this is a very nice companion piece. On to the rest now, but not right now as I want to enjoy "Elizabethtown" just a bit more.

CKMorpheus

I was wondering if Elizabethtown would be a decent follow up, and it looks like it is, I may have to rent this. Almost Famous is in my top ten.

mongoco

I haven't seen it but the premise looks so similar to Garden State, which I really liked.

PopcornTreeCt

I dont like Kirsten Dunst. Maybe I'll pick this up when it hits the ten dollar shelf.

meritocracy

I completely disagree. I've enjoyed a number of Crowe films, but Elizabethtown didn't work for me at all. The themes imbued are of the hopeful sort, but it's awfully self-indulgent, the pacing is erratic, and Dunst's character comes off as nothing more than a complete and utter cypher. A heartfelt failure.

Decker

Can someone please explain to me how a failed shoe line can cost the company ONE BILLION DOLLARS? I can imagine a failure in the tens of millions, but a billion dollars, c'mon! What did they do, give away 20 million pairs of $50 shoes? It's like the number was made up by a idiot savant.

mongoco

haha i guess it's like that episode of The Simpsons where Homer ruins his brother's auto manufacturer with one vehicle.

mdc3000

That was a huge problem for me...because Garden State had a similar plot line, but was about 50 times better than Elizabethtown. The writing was disjointed, the characters (with exception of Dunst) were fairly flat, situations contrived and it was overly long. I love every Cameron Crowe film EXCEPT Elizabethtown...and going into it, I wanted to love it. Was disappointed at the theatre and I gave it another chance last night on DVD, still not swayed.

I think a major problem, is that I couldn't relate to or identify with Orlando Bloom's character Drew. Orlando does a decent enough job, but for me, they set out to make him instantly unlikeable - the scene with the knife on the bike - which pretty much ruined his character for me for the rest of the film. Hopefully Crowe will come back with a vengence on his next flick.

MATT

Dr. DVD

I have always enjoyed Cameron Crowe's movies, even Vanilla Sky. However, Elizabethtown was not a favorite of mine and was average at best IMO. The problem with that movie was that it needed to have some scissors taken to sequences of it, particularly Susan Sarandon's little bit towards the end(that scene almost seemed like it was Crowe trying to justify having Sarandon in the picture, as she did little until that moment then almost had a soliloquoy for what seemed like ten minutes or so).
Dunst's character was fun, but she was a typical romantic comedy love interest if one ever existed. On top of all this, I am from Kentucky and was familiar with everything they were talking about for the most part, even a lot of the humor. I guess what I'm saying is that if this movie had difficulty appealing to someone like me who got a lot of the regional based humor, then I couldn't imagine how it could catch on with people not familiar with it, which I guess is why it flopped.

OldBoy

i think it flopped because it was marketed real wrong. i mean i had interest when i saw the trailers (mainly because it was Crowe), but i don't think they did it justice.

i guess it just resonated real well at a time that i wanted it too. i wasn't even looking forward to it and didn't want to rent it, but forces made me and i couldn't have enjoyed it more. the 2:03 running time really whisped by and that was surprising in itself. i loved "Garden State" and do think it was the superior movie, but not that far superior.

clemente

Garden State and Elizabethtown both resonanted with me for very similar reasons. When put back to back, GS has two great characters in Portman and Braff, while Elizabethtown struggles with giving us two solid characters.

And the Sarandon bit at the end just needed to be dropped, completely unnecessary.

NatrlBornThrllr

I've never been a big Crowe fan. I guess his movies just don't hit home with me on a personal level. I thought Almost Famous and Jerry Maguire were enjoyable enough, but I didn't think of either as masterpieces. Vanilla Sky is probably my favorite of all of his films, but I like the original more, so I'm not sure that I can credit Crowe with even that. Just not to my taste, I suppose.

-JP

mongoco

"the Soup" on E! had a funny spoof of the trailer ending with "What the hell is this movie about?"

Patman

E-Town was bad because Dunst's character was a frikkin' stalker, but the movie makes you want to just go along with its premise and hum along to the all-too-self-aware song tracks. It's one of Crowe's infrequent fumbles.

Dr. DVD

I don't know if many men on here would object to being stalked by Kirsten Dunst.

Like I said, this movie needed some editing.

neocheddar02

The movie definitely needed some editing; for instance-the final 20 minutes or so. I also agree that Sarandon's speech towards the end could have been cut. I guess we just need a "Elizabethtown:The Phantom Edit"

Sunday Morning

I loved Say Anything... Like Singles, though it's a bit fleeing, sort of like your 20s. Hate Jerry Maguire. Almost Famous I like...It has some individual scenes I love. It does get bogged down in some of it's sentiment a bit, but it's still pretty good. Vanilla Sky has some decent moments, but too many ridiculous ones as well. I prefer the original Open Your Eyes.

And then there's Elizabethtown...

I went into it thinking I would hate it. It was critically panned, almost across the board. It did really poorly at the box office... But god help me, I loved it.

Like Almost Famous it does get dragged down in sentiment, but there's also some really pure moments here. Crowe dares attempt to say a few things here and risks to throw the film's tone off, and that's okay. He understands that films can be whatever we want them to but they also need be entertaining and from the heart. He has plenty of that. It's all at once a loving tribute to music, family and the power of inspiration that others can provide to you when you least expect it.

When this movie ended I felt good about myself and I longed to want to meet some of the characters in the movie. The film on reflection is a bit european in the way it tell's it story (Crowe's love of Truffuat really shows here) but it also oddly is a celebration of America. We have the freedom at any time to change our lives here, and the best way to do it is to see all the things she has to offer. I need to take a road trip. Now!

His best film since Say Anything.

OldBoy

very well put

movieking

I really liked Elizabethtown, but hated hated hated Garden State. I like Zach Braff, and love Scrubs, but I really didn't like GS. Didn't like the characters at all, especially Natalie Portman and Peter Sarsgaard. Elizabethtown dragged towards the end, especially during the roadtrip, and I thought that it could have been cut by 10 - 20 minutes, but otherwise, I really enjoyed it and can't really understand why it didn't catch on more.

riley_dude

I wanted to see Elizabethtown until I saw the reviews. All were pretty bad.
I do love Crowe's other movies like Say Anything and Almost Famout but never did care for Jerry McQuire and Vanilla Sky should not have been remade. So I it's hard to use Masterpieces in Plural form.

Legolas

Dunst seemed like the ultimate girlfriend in E-Town.

FantasticVSDoom

Exactly...I was enjoying the movie just fine, and this part came and I was like, wtf?? And I wanted to love this movie because I enjoy Crowe's films, and enjoy movies with southern themes and quirkiness (ala Fried Green Tomatoes).

Another problem with this film and a problem I find in a number of films like this...She seems like the perfect girl, and its hard to believe that type of character.

gryffinmaster

Difficult to follow up the rest of the praises listed here. Glad I'm not the only one who felt this way.

I can't rank Crowe's films. They are all brilliant, IMHO. Elizabethtown is his best film since Vanilla Sky, which was his best film since Almost Famous, which was his best film since Jerry Maguire. His use of cinematography, score, and rich characters can really blow your mind if you soak in all the elements.

I thoroughly enjoyed both Bloom (Drew) and Dunst (Claire)in this film. I think they have a vested chemistry between them that grows as the film progresses. There are obviously lacking initial positive sparks - but, in real life, sparks don't always just make themselves apparent. Situations, like Baylor's lonely night in the hotel room can ignite sparks. Also, Claire might NOT be the perfect girlfriend - just from what we see, she might be flawless. And that's exactly what Drew Baylor needed - something genuinely pure and perfect to counter balance his ultimate catastrophe and the death of his father. At least, the perfection is what we see from Baylor's perspective.

The loss of a billion dollars - yes, that is a little far-fetched. The footwear might have costed millions upon millions in research for materials, production, marketing through all mediums, etc. Even taken at face value, however, that billion dollar figure is entirely feasable if the shoe failed product testing, became too expensive to manufacture, etc.

However, maybe that figure shouldn't be seen as a realistic number. He wants to illustrate the epitome of a "catastrophe" in this environment, and maybe he does so by beefing up the number. As we see Baylor's character do numerous times, he rounds the figure up to a billion dollars. Maybe he rounds the entire situation up in his mind, and the account we are given is on a exaggerated level as reproduced from the memory of a failed product line - and the innovator who is responsible. It's what Baylor's made to do, and a failure in his profession would be seen as a life-altering event. Maybe in his mind, he takes it to another level, and that's what we see.

Engrossing story, terrific cinematography, rich characters - one of my favorite films released within the past year.

SeekOnce

I watched this a few night ago, and I gotta say, it was a mixed bag for me. People have already mentioned them but the whole bit about the shoe (Spasmotica?) and Susan Surandon's spiel near the end did not work for me at all. And I noticed some continuity errors that really stuck out (Dunst rubbing the urn with her right hand, next cut she's rubbing with her left), which is funny because I usually don't notice them in movies.

But on the flipside, there were definitely elements in the film that I found very charming. I don't know. It felt sloppy. It could've used more work. Editing, rewrites, whatever.

sherm42

15 minutes into this film, I turned to my wife and said, "This is Garden State, only not as good."

I just didn't connect with the characters at all in the film. Something about it was off. I think Crowe went a little too far with the musical montages. To the point where we are expected to connect with the characters solely on that basis. I also never felt anything for the father who had died. There was never any real exploration of that character other than people talking about how amazing he was.

I know Crowe himself never had a father growing up so maybe he had a hard time writing a father/son relationship.

My wife liked it more than me, but I would never really want to watch this again.