Movie Review: Elizabethtown

[sisabet]

So okay - a few things you really need to know going in:

1. The movie pretty much had me at the title. Growing up, with my name, just down the Interstate from a place called Elizabethtown - of course I am gonna feel a kinship with the place. Name and place your movie's primary setting after/in this place? I'm already touched.

2. I have a Cameron Crowe weakness. I try to be strong - I do! I do not typically like romantic comedies. I watched "Jerry Maquire" with drdawn solely to mock! And mock we did right up to the moment we both went "Awwwwwww" and started getting estrogen-y. I think there is just something about him, I mean he is married to that chick from "Heart" and he is obviously just a big ole sentimental geek and I think I'd actually like him in real life - so there is that. Deep down inside I am a great big ole girl and so is Cameron Crowe and he helps me get in touch with that.

3. Numbers 1 and 2, notwithstanding, I have an extreme sensitivity to typical portrayal of the rural South, that was worsed by the 2004 Presidential Election. Trust me, there is still so much anger, frustration and dispair locked up tight inside, that anything can inspire a senseless rant.

I did not want to see City Mouse meets Country Mouse. Thankfully, I didn't. Crowe won me over by lovingly shooting and getting the foilbles of a narrow little area of Kentucky - namely the stretch from Louisville to Elizabethtown - because in this movie? They were as much a character as anything and he absolutely captured the charm and quirkyness of both. Actually - they look too good. It seems he went for the E-town of twenty years ago (probably because in the movie E-town was played by Versailles) and the Louisville of ten years ago and I am willing to go with that.

The Kentucky characters were all really well drawn and respected (especially the old men from Bardstown!) and Paula Deen (yes Momma - that Paula Deen) turned in the best performance of the film as Aunt Dora. I don't care if she was playing herself: I KNOW that woman. I am related to that woman. I attended church with that woman. I have been swatted on the behind and sent to the corner by that woman. That is the woman that would give me a cookie so I would stop crying after I was stung by a wasp. She was real.

Likewise, Cousin Jessie, brilliantly played by Paul Schneider. I've dated him, I've counseled him, I've held his hair when he pukes and I've been his best friend. I *know* this guy and it was really nice to see a movie that concentrates on the dreamer and heartfilled aspect of this character and not the loutishness.

You know you are watching the film with a Kentucky audience when the camera pans across a funeral home the crowd quietly starts muttering "Oh, Clark's!" or "We used them for Tim's mother" or "Oh, that is a nice one" and "That isn't in Hardin County" and various other stuff. You want to get this audience stirred up, bring on the death and preparations beyond. I have thoughts but they belong on a private post. Suffice it to say, the only way I am ever going to get my wishes followed on what to do with my body in the event of my death, is to outlive my family. Good thing I am just as stubborn and obstinate as anyone else. Defying my mother! Yay! A reason to live!

Another thing that got the crowd up in arms was the use of Louisville area landmarks to depict the drive to E-town. People were turning around and pointing at the screen going "Why is he on 64???" "He shouldn't be passing downtown!" (and also? UofL got booed. What do you expect - this is Lexington, but still - not too often are you in an audience that boos a sign) annnnd eventually our nonpatience was rewarded by an incredibly funny joke if you have ever been in a car in Kentucky. Oh actually there were two jokes about that. No wait - three. It was funny to me.

The romantic comedy aspect of it was meh - but hey - this is probably the least annoying Kirsten Dunst has been since "Interview with a Vampire" so there is that. Not to say she isn't annoying, but annoying in a strangely chipper East Tennessee girl way. Even if she did mangle the accent. Seriously, she needs to quit harshing the "i" - I know Nashvillians stress it, but ease up a bit, Dunst. It is a softly strident "i" and no girl from Tennessee says "route" as "root." It does not happen.

Accents were a problem with the leads, as almost two hours of Orlando Bloom attempting an American accent is only slightly less painful than two hours of Kevin Costner attempting an English one. I really wish Crowe had perhaps cut a few songs from the score in favor of investing that money toward a dialect coach.

Of course, if he had done that then there would have been no purpose of the film. Really, in the end, this movie is an ode to music and America and wide open spaces and road-trips and how deep down in your soul you really want and need to reclaim the redemptive and cathartic power of "Free Bird".

That makes me kinda love it.

Comments

[movies-michelle.livejournal.com]

Thanks so much for the review. Now I want to see it, if for nothing else, than the in-jokes about driving through KY. (Ah, that drive from Louisville to Lexington...)

Wow, I can really talk when I want to, can't I? :)

[vampslayer04.livejournal.com]

I *have* to see this movie now. I'm from Louisville, although I'm currently in Richmond at college.

I was afraid that they were going to mangle the Kentuckian characters something awful and I'm glad to hear that they haven't.

Also, the "driving in Kentucky" jokes are probably gonna make me laugh hysterically. Maybe I'm better off renting this movie, instead of subjecting a theater audience to my reaction. No, I'm never loud, why do you ask?

Also the "Why is he on 64?" thing will probably bug me. And I've been dying to know this: Did they actually use Louisville International Airport or was it a generic airport?

[pipsqueaky.livejournal.com]

*raises hand* I say "root"!

Actually, half the time I say "root" and half the time I say "rowt". I forget which one I actually learned while growing up. It's cause I'm a whatchamacallit - a chameleon. No wait, a mockingbird. One of those animals that is constantly imitating everything else. If I hear someone pronouncing something differently than I do, I naturally assume they are right and I am wrong, and since I am *obsessed* with proper pronounciation (and spelling, and grammar, and yadda yadda), I adopt their method of saying it, except most of the time it gets kind of jumbled with the way I originally said it, and then I can't remember which is which, and with all the different pronounciations and accents and idioms I've tried to incorporate over the years it's a wonder anyone can understand anything I say.

Anyway.

Movie sounds excellent. Shall go see as soon as it opens. Thanks for the review.

Completely off topic (tho' you make me want to see the flick, now)

[revdorothyl.livejournal.com]

"Suffice it to say, the only way I am ever going to get my wishes followed on what to do with my body in the event of my death, is to outlive my family. Good thing I am just as stubborn and obstinate as anyone else. Defying my mother! Yay! A reason to live!"

It's always good to have a reason to live, and I have no intention of depriving you. However, from my experience with funeral arrangements, I think that if you put in your last will and testament what you want done with your body AND pre-pay for the funeral/disposal service you've selected (unless you're leaving it to science, in which case there should be no cost), you might actually prevail over the wishes of your family, post-mortem.

But, to be on the safe side, you'd definitely be well-advised to outlive anyone who might say you 'nay,' after you're no longer able to claim the last word!

[so-sharlemaine.livejournal.com]

I'm so glad you posted your thoughts about this. I rarely see movies until they hit cable or maybe PPV, but I think I'll check this one out just because of your post. Living in rural Mississippi myself and working in Louisville very often for the past 7 years, I'll admit I've been skeptical about how this movie would be delivered.

Oh, and uh, "heh" on Paula Deen. I totally get what you were saying about knowing her and the cookie and getting swatted and sent to the corner. I think reading that is where I decided to go see the film.

[kaciagemini.livejournal.com]

I think I may have to go see that this weekend after all. ...or better yet, maybe if I wait a few weeks, it will play at the Franklin drive-in - that, I think, would be an experience all its own. o.O;