RUTHERFORD ON FILM
‘Elizabethtown’ Comedic, Symbolic Feel Good Fable on Life, Death, Hanging on to What You Have
By Tony RutherfordHuntington News Network Writer
Huntington, WV (HNN) --- Call it Hollywood serendipity … only at the flicks can you in the course of two hours slide from responsibility for a billion dollar corporate fiasco, deal with the news of your father’s death, absorb a sound bite bumping from your smug girlfriend, and elaborately plan a date with a long knife on a bicycle then beam ear to ear from modified southern hospitality and the healthy helpfulness of zany blonde cheerleader in the guise of a flight attendant who inspires him to gracefully journey through it all with a laugh, a few tears, and a smiling deep passionate kiss of life at the end of the trail.
Cameron (“Almost Famous,” “Vanilla Sky,” “Say Anything”) Crowe’s “Elizabethtown” capitalizes on the oldest romantic notion of them all --- opposites attract. Drew Baylor (Orlando Bloom ) would not be flying from Portland back to Kentucky on a nearly empty moonlight flight had not his mom (Susan Sarandon) wormed her way into a Bluegrass soldier’s heart while on an elevator in Japan with military officer Mitch (Tim Bevitt). Both were engaged to others, but the ‘love at first sight’ trumped the already committed bonds. But his new wife would soon lure him from the friendly, traditional confines of Kentucky to California, the cradle of progressive and liberal thinking.
This warm and snuggly production has a knack and charm for blending emotional devastation with light hearted, almost impossibly uplifting segues. When you strap on your seatbelt for Drew’s journey, not even a morsel of disbelief infringes on acceptance of the good luck of the emotionally mortally wounded man.
As an example, battle lines draw in a burial versus cremation decision, but somehow a bunch of unruly kids and adults let go of their hostility when they watch a tape on ‘how to listen and blow up a house.’ Similar segues amplify the vast personalities that fling themselves into and out of the lives of Drew. His retreat to a historic Louisville hotel lands him a room where everyone else on the eighth floor celebrates a marriage. Once the revelers learn of his mission, he’s welcomed into their family by big bear hugs and free beer.
Symbolism flies throughout “Elizabethtown” --- the obvious give me my roses while I’m alive theme competes with overrating “success” and the most significant reminder: If you accept the baggage with the person, that’s a gesture which nearly equals unconditional love . Director Crowe takes these seriously meaty philosophical words of wisdom and allows them to swirl sensitively in your head while his characters have a buoyant good time at a ‘wake’ that’s more like a wedding ceremony.
Afterwards, you slowly recognize the irony of calculated goodness flowing from grief. You’ve witnessed this not only as competitors and enemies laugh and cry together promising heartfelt compassion for survivors. People watchers no doubt noticed two behavioral changes since 9/11: More non-couples say, “I love you” in public and you see more saying grace before a restaurant meal.
No matter the celebration or pain, Crowe’s interplay with quirky characters cements the bliss of “Elizabethtown.”
Kirsten Dunst portrays Claire, a chatty and seemingly hilariously exaggerated flight attendant purveying the all too common “it’s my job” have a good day gospel. Underneath the job required smiles hides a wonderfully upbeat nurturer crying out for a soul mate who complements her imaginative humor and comfortable confidence gained from stomping on or ignoring these concerns about what ‘they’ or ‘them’ will say. She radiates a sense of just have fun and be yourself which overrides the depression of missed opportunities and catastrophic failures. Dunst has a few awkward moments before neatly filling the role. Her in-flight attempts at comfortable conversations while maintaining professionalism. You have to ask does she sense his grief (yes) while eagerly offering a little extra help (directions to Elizabethtown complete with her phones and AAA 800 number for lost tourists) through intuition, desperateness or an instant spark that he’s my other half.
Drew solidifies the pairing during a grab your electric battery charger all-night cell phone marathon with this stranger from the plane. As the conversation unfolds, they each nonchalantly accomplish routines (she empties the cat liter, he puts his hand over the mike while he flushes) and continue spurting lovely conversation until the pivotal, ‘Let’s see the sunrise together, I’ll meet you half way,” brings the romantic chemicals to fruition.
Still, the film has misfires. It’s hard to accept Drew’s mom doing stand up one-liners at the memorial celebration after the incalculable scenes of her having badly lost all manner of sanity from Mitch’s demise. And, although an anti-climatic partially cross-country road trip hammers a morbid, already punctuated, sentiment, the orchestrated sight-seeing and moping event is not a seamless fit for the production.
VIEWER’S REACTION: Lots of giggles and belly laughs
CRITIC’S SUMMATION: If this place exists, I’m on the next bus out of here, especially if Claire’s waiting for me there!