Movie Review: Elizabethtown
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What Parents Should Know
Parents should know that the movie begins as a young man has
lost his well-paying job and considers suicide; though this act
is represented "comically," as he sets up an exercise bike and
knife as if to stab himself, it might raise questions for some
younger viewers. He must also deal with his father's death (and
mother and sister's upset). The film includes references to
sexuality (sometimes romantically, but also in ruder contexts,
as during drunken boy-talk), and a couple of women appear in
scanty clothing. Characters use mild language (out of
frustration, anger, and occasional excitement), smoke, and
drink (during a weekend-long wedding party, characters are
visibly drunk).
Families can discuss Drew's efforts to come to terms with his father's death, and especially, what this means for his own sense of identity. How does Drew accommodate his mother and sister's needs, at first as a means to put off his own sense of loss, and then as a way to understand his own background and needs? How does the movie represent the idea of "family" as eccentric and stressful, but also supportive and crucial in shaping identity? What are the various models of "family" you see in the movie? How does Drew's erratic romance with Claire eventually provide him with direction, or another, perhaps healthier, lens through which he can see himself?
Common Sense Media Review
A strangely stultified romance, Cameron Crowe's
ELIZABETHTOWN does not know how to end. Or, for that matter,
how to begin or develop or provide much in the way of sustained
entertainment. Though it plainly aspires to a sort of
"freshness," given its peculiar rhythms and offbeat comedy,
it's flattened by its focus on a dull boy hero and his
clichéd redemption by the love of a quirky girl.
Drew (Orlando Bloom) opens the film with a bit of observational narration concerning his recent "fiasco," which he defines as a "disaster of epic proportions." Specifically, he's designed an utterly terrible, unsellable, laughable shoe for a mega sportswear company, costing his employer, the awesomely smug and significantly named (after Mr. Nike) Phil (Alec Baldwin), close to a billion dollars. When Drew's fellow employee and success-infatuated girlfriend Ellen (Jessica Biel) dumps him, he turns briefly suicidal (taping a huge and shiny kitchen knife to his exercise bike, as if to stab himself while riding to nowhere). Before he can do the deed, however, he gets a phone call that changes his life: his father has died in Elizabethtown, Kentucky, and he needs to retrieve the body and return it to Oregon, home of his mom Hollie (Susan Sarandon) and sister Heather (Judy Greer).
Drew's journey will be enlightening and healing, augured by his first encounter with the sole flight attendant on his flight, on which he is the sole passenger. During this extended magical moment, he isn't quite smitten by Claire (Kirsten Dunst), but she gives him her number anyway. Feeling especially bereft some hours later, he calls her and they talk through the night, in one of those unclever montages where the principals fall in love by way of sharing deep thoughts. Claire, especially, is full of them: "Nobody's as anxious as they think they are," "Men see things in a box, and women see them in a round room," and, most painfully, "I think I've been asleep my whole life." Makes me sleepy just thinking about it.
