Just in case you didn't know, Elizabethtown is a real-life small town in Kentucky, USA. And yes you guessed it, Kentucky is also home to Colonel Sanders of the KFC empire :))
I just caught the movie tonite and my verdict is, well, a 6ish - low 7ish/10 cos I can't seem to put my finger on just how the movie has lost its way. On one hand, it has its nice sweet moments and Kirsten Dunst together with Orlando Bloom are both really eye-candy. They have some palpable screen chemistry going but on the other hand, the plot is pretty if-fy and abit of a ramble. Plus it seems that Writer/Director Cameron Crowe (Jerry Maguire, Vanilla Sky) is bent on cramming too many songs into the soundtrack, just so that he can make the show into one big MTV-resque journey into the American heartland.
Bloom plays Drew Baylor, a once hot-shot shoe designer whose latest sneaker design has flopped terribly on the shoe market, losing his company millions and millions of dollars. He tries to ingeniously kill himself the night he gets the sack but is interrupted by a phonecall telling him that his dad has passed away. Drew is then instructed by Mummy (the fantastic Susan Sarandon) to get his oh-so-pert arse to Elizabethtown to bring back the body of his late father. Along the way there, he meets Claire (Dunst), an eternally positive flight attendant who senses his despair and makes it her Calling to cheer him up. It helps that Claire has developed a desperate crush on Drew you see.
In essence, the movie tries to weave these 3 subplots...
1. A son's longing for his dad who has suddenly passed away and his sense of regret for not being able to go on a roadtrip with his father before the latter dies. The roadtrip finally materialises with his father's ashes on the journey. Better late than never I suppose.
2. An unusually chirpy and positive girl makes the 1st move when she meets the guy whom she thinks is her soulmate. She tries to pretend that the 2 of them are just using each other as substitute lovers but deep down inside she really likes him. The guy takes a while to realise that he really likes her in return, amidst his feelings of sentimental melancholy over his late father's demise.
3. A city boy discovers the charms and warmth of small-town America, ironically in the quirkily conservative relatives/frens of his dead father.
And so the show toggles between the 3, albeit not in as tight a fashion as I would have liked it to be, resulting in a meandering plot that at some point, makes you feel that its in dire need of a map too.
Watch it, if like me and the Missus, you get all tingly at the sight of the delectable duo Dunst and Bloom. Its really not that bad but you have to calibrate your expectations and not expect too much. If anything, you get to see the sights and sounds of central heartland America that is Kentucky, a welcome change from the usual New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco cityscapes.
But mostly, Kirsten RawkZ! :P