I agree with many of the comments about the film feeling bloated. At times, I identified with the leads...but the film lost much of it's charm during the scene where they were talking in the wedding banquet room (the wedding would take place the next day). Both the Drew and Claire characters came off as wooden. It felt forced and unnatural. Almost anytime Drew's character would let loose and act goofy it seemed wooden...was that Orlando or the direction. Some of the character's choices didn't seem to make sense...would have loved to be on set to see what kind of direction Crowe was giving them.

I also agree that the Claire character bordered on stalking (how about the fake picture taking....that came off as creepy). Let's not even go into Claire's accent coming and going at times.

Have to agree, I loved the movie the first time I saw it, when it was called "Garden State." Not so much the second time when it was called "Elizabethtown."

Ron

PS: How about Alec Baldwin, King of the Cameo's. He is terrific in 5 minute spurts.

i don't see what the problem with Susan Sarandon's eulogy at the end.

i thought it was great, endearing, and warm. it was the chance to bring the two families together. she was the only outcast after Orlando already ingratiated his way into their lives and now it was her turn as the last homage to her husband.

his family was so important to him and she and them were distant as any family could be. Crowe was bringing that to resolution and i thought he did a magnificent job, as did Sarandon.

I think Sarandon' speech would have worked better for me it was slightly trimmed and if she had more to do in the earlier parts of the film. we saw her character grow but because her previous scenes were so short and not fully fleshed-out it did not work for me.

That said, I really disliked this film. I am a big fan of all Crowe's previous works. I heard bad things of this film and went in with really low expectations and still felt let down. The movie just did not grab me. Orlando Bloom in the film seemed like a redux of Tom Cruises character in JM. The Dunst character really annoyed me, and not just because her accent kept changing.

From the beginning, it just didn't grab me. It seemed to take forever to get going and I was just plain bored.

Oh yeah, I think it would have taken me a good week to make that map that she seemed to create out of thin air. I know, it's a movie. If it was a good movie, I could overlook that.

I never made any connection to Garden State until reading this thread, but I love Garden State. I have probably seen it about five times. I think the leads in that movie are great and endearing and it does use music in a similar fashion to how Crowe usually does in his films.

Is this the Cameron Crowe movie that Ashton Kutcher auditioned for but got the boot because he couldn't act?

I liked the movie, mostly the family parts when they are all together in the house, I thought those scenes were great. I also liked the road trip at the end. I did notce Kristin Dunst's accent keep changing. When they first met on the plane and when he got off she really had a big accent, then later in the film she didnt. then some times when he didnt have any accent. Still a pretty good movie I would of gave it a B-

Yup. He had the role but things "didn't work out."

this movie was pretty damned average. a letdown for me. Almost Famous is a friggin masterpiece, and I like Crowe an awful lot, but this one just lost its way and could never really decide what it wanted to be....the ending was like a different movie in and of itself....I really think Crowe just had too many big ideas with this one and it got away from him. I recall ebert trashing it when it was initially screened at festivals at almost 2:30 - I can't even imagine that....it could have used another 15-20 minutes cut out still.

but more than anything, I am appalled that the OP refers to Bruce McGill as "the guy from Timecop" - eesh.

well, he is pretty famous for that role and most people would know who i am talking about by referencing that character as opposed to the one in "Ciffhanger" or even "Collateral", but i don't think he was too memorable in those. maybe i could have said "Cinderella Man"which is more recent, but his performance got a little overshadowed by a couple of others that were a little more known, not to mention Oscar-caliber, but i didn't. i could have said "MacGuyver", but that was tv. so why don't you calm down.

The correct answer is: D-Day.

Or the cop in My Cousin Vinny.

Ok first of all, please stop comparing this to Garden State. This movie is absolutely NOTHING like Garden State. It barely resembles it in the fact that the plot revolves around a young twenty-something going back home to bury one of his parents. The comparisons end there.

As for the movie Elizabethtown. My tolerance level for Kirsten Dunst is on thin ice and her performance in this movie made it crash through and sink to the bottom. She's supposed to be the "perfect girlfriend" but fails in every way possible. She's horribly annoying to put it nicely. I suppose the only reason why Orlando Bloom's character keeps talking to her is a)it's in the script and b)because he was just about to kill himself and has zero self-esteem. Other than that, it's ridiculous. Cameron Crowe tried to write another "Penny Lane" type character and maybe it wasn't the writing, perhaps an attractive looking actress that could actually act would've brought something to the role and made it somewhat tolerable. It's a minor issue, but note to Cameron: planes don't make flights with no one on them. Orlando Bloom's airline ticket wouldn't even cover 5% of the fuel cost to make that flight. Shall we proceed? Ah yes, Paul Schneider made famous by David Gordon Green's George Washington and All the Real Girls is totally wasted. It was his performance that I was looking forward to the most but he serves no real purpose. Cameron is sorta stuck with what he wants to do with them. There's a hint of him having parental issues he needs to work out but this storyline never leaves the shallow end of the pool. While the soundtrack was good, the musical cues became so predictable and almost laughable as they came on. Music is supposed to enhance a scene not be the scene.

Cameron Crowe is a very mixed bag. When he's on the money, he's great and when he misses he fails miserably. Vanilla Sky is one of the greatest disasters of recent years while Almost Famous is pure magic. Unfortunately, Elizabethtown is as bad if not worse than you've heard.

Elizabethtown...you mean Garden State II? Wasn't impressed. I still question how the 'failure' of a show can cost a company 1 BILLION dollars. Was this Nike? No? Then don't invest 1 BILLION DOLLARS IS A SHOE!

I didn't buy into Dunst's and Bloom's characters. When I watch a movie, I typically put myself into the lead male character's shoes ('cause I'm a male, myself). I just couldn't do that with Orlando Bloom in this film.

And I thought Dunst's acting -- although not atrocious -- wasn't that good.

It was a movie I wanted to like, but couldn't muster up enough attachment to the film. I'll be giving it another shot, though, since I've had experiences where watching it a second time made me like the movie more. (Usually works on movies that I liked somewhat the first time, though.)

For me this is one of those movies that got better with a second watching. Although, I feel that it is a little too drowned in southern rock songs & that the ending was a little to unrealistic.

yeah, ultimately the sheer implausability of their meeting on an empty plane and the fact that Dunst's character was an annoying twit - and weirdly stalkerish - really made everything that ensued all the more unlikely and rather insipid. why not make it a sort of empty plane? i've been on a red eye with 15 other people....in the end though, i think blame really falls on dunst, she's just rather annoying, has a different accent in every scene, and comes off as a stalker. i mean come on, you can hear the creepy self-dialog as she puts that roadtrip tome together.....who does that?

FWIW, I thought the Freebird bit at the end came off more as someone trying to ape Cameron Crowe as opposed to an authentic Crowe moment. While Crowe always has great STs to his movies, this one really was overbearing and felt like it was blaring in your ears the whole time.
Also, the Sarandon bit at the end would not have been so pretentous had she actually been developed more in the movie. The way it plays makes it look more like Crowe wanted to give Sarandon something to justify her presence in the movie.

In terms of Dunst's character, I have the feeling that in reality Drew would have walked into a secluded area per her recorded instructions expecting to meet her and kiss. Instead he would have been met with an axe to the forehead, fallen to the ground dead, then with a wild gleam in her eye Claire would have done her stupid "click!" gesture. End of movie.