I don't know what people saw at Toronto, but with a few exceptions, Elizabethtown exceeded expectations.
That isn't to say it doesn't have a few problems, but the last third makes me really, REALLY want to love it.
The screening last night at Tallahassee's AMC 20 started off on an odd note, as the projection staff set the screen for a Scope print, which is the wrong aspect ratio for a movie shot Flat. The first five minutes was pretty badly marred by the fact that Orlando Bloom's face looked twice as wide as it ought to have been. I'll take the tradeoff of not having to sit through trailers, though.
My ticket to the 80-90% full Wednesday night sneak of Elizabethtown
Orlando Bloom's series of "I'm fine"'s didn't feel organic, along with line deliveries in spots throughout. I'm sure the problem most people will have is him acting in a movie without the benefit of a bow and elf ears. He's not doing what people expect, similar to Johnny Depp's Wonka this summer. You get used to seeing a particular aesthetic on the screen, and it's tough to shake. Bloom does win it over a little way in though.
I didn't buy Susan Sarandon and Judy Greer until much later. The scenes peppered throughout the movie (until things get semi-serious) that feature them are played too theatrical. In particular, the departure at the airport felt disingenuous, as if either there was something missing. Once we got to the memorial service, their stuff felt more like the performances that make me love watching both women time and time again. The phone call while Drew had to ask "mother....LISTEN--focus" worked, and the phone call before did to some degree.
I often found myself wondering how much better a lot of the dialogue would have worked in the theatre than in a film. I don't think this is a result of the words being unsuited to film, but how they were delivered. Of course, take that observation with a grain of salt, coming from an actor.
To be clear, I didn't just enjoy the movie. Upon further reflection last night, I really loved the movie. Is it perfect? No, but I love it in spite of its faults. There's more than enough good here to outweigh the bad.
Other bits that felt off included the $972 million dollar spent on this one shoe line and the preoccupation with this one suit. If the blue/brown argument got settled once we saw the grey suit in the coffin, where was the scene where that compromise was reached? Where was that half-minute exchange? It felt like it just got dropped.
A couple friends asked where the road trip came from, but they must have not paid attention to the frequent references to "we were planning on taking a road trip from Elizabethtown to Oregon" comments made throughout.
I don't believe in the term "return to form" for directors in most cases, just as I don't believe in "career comeback" for actors. These terms indicate pariah-level fucking-up, to the degree of Drew's Big Fiasco.
Vanilla Sky was not the greatest movie ever made, but there were far too many expectations of it going in, thanks to the biggest marquee name in the business. Some may think that movie is Cameron's Big Fiasco, and possibly even Mr. Crowe himself.
One of the more indellible images from Elizabethtown
Elizabethtown is what I'd call Crowe's ultimate "lifetrack". Not a slice of life or a soundtrack, but a really rich mix of the two. That's the story Crowe knows and tells the best. It's his signature. His rhythm as a filmmaker follows the flow of good music, and his best movies play like suburban operas, big stories in small settings with big juicy themes.
I touched on the Southern definition of kinship in my writeup of Junebug, and though I don't want to repeat myself too much, I'd be remiss if I didn't address how subtly and at once blatantly Crowe comments on it here. When Drew (Bloom) arrives in Kentucky, he's stepped into another world entirely. All these people embrace him as if he's just come back from war a hero, but you figure they'd greet him the same way if he had merely gone to the store and they'd all happened to be around.
Drew begins looking for who he's related to, who he knows well, and he spends a large chunk of the flick denying the fact that he doesn't really know anyone well, including himself. He's got genetics in common with these people, but that's about it.
You've got the Aunt who's big on genealogy, the father and his son who don't understand each other at all (Drew's uncle and cousin), and the little boy who screams louder than you'd think a human child could.
Southern Touching Syndrome is especially evident in all of the vigorous hugging Drew receives from people outside his direct family group. Chuck, of "Chuck & Cindy: The Wedding" demonstrates not only this phenomena, but also gives us a great example of grief conferral, where he reacts to the news of Mitch Baylor's death as if he'd known the man.
Kirsten Dunst has a rather pronounced accent in her first few scenes and it softens out over time, just as Orlando Bloom picks up hints of one as the movie rolls. Is Crowe saying the South is infectious? Does it seep in and change you by degrees, or do we just assimilate whatever we're around, and Drew just happens to be there during the movie's slice of his life.
I'm sure people have used the "q" word to describe Claire's (Dunst) personality, but I don't think that quite gets it. Sure, she's weird and awkward, but she gradually moves out of that into the most alluring girl I've yet seen her play on film.
Claire is a young woman who probably flies on all those planes and has all those single-serving friends and encounters because she's been hurt too many times in the past to try for anything lasting with another person. She gives Drew a moment when they meet, and she "knows people" well enough that she can see in him a similar fear of being hurt.
Drew insists that he doesn't cry, and I don't believe that happens until very long into the runtime of the picture, and that instant is just as cathartic for the audience as it is for him.
I really dug that this movie, largely about the death of a guy's dad, didn't stay in the Mope Zone for more than a couple brief moments at a time. It's much too easy to classify this as a "finding yourself" journey.
Drew's real struggle is finding the presence of others within himself. Drew gets who he is at a certain point, and what that 42-hour mixtape really leads him to is the realization that he isn't as alone as he thought he has always been. He knew he had an abiding love for his father, but the connection between that relationship and the words "I love you daddy" was what ate at him the most.
Crowe has put together one of the best narrative endings I've seen in a while, where most people in the cinema were asking "is that it?" not because they were unimpressed, but rather as a result of the end sneaking up and pleasantly surprising them.
Elizabethtown sails at just under 2 hours, and could best be summed up as "you're never sure where you're going until you get there," and I for one am glad I took the trip. There are parts of many great films that don't work perfectly, but that's fine for a movie that pays off, and Elizabethtown does.
Now all I want is to know what Crowe would put on a 42-hour mixtape.
Looting the Marketplace of Ideas
Wow, does the trailer alternately ruin surprises and mess up the dynamic of jokes in this flick. The "IIIII like you" line works fine in context, but the trailer makes you expect schmaltz to the max.
I'm disappointed that the marketing guys missed the chance to do something really novel with the poster: align it like a landscape portrait, using the shot of Drew & Claire overlooking the river. If they watched any of the movie, they'd get the picture-taking motif (the way Claire does it) and that shot was much more emblematic of the film than Bloom & Dunst sitting on a couch dressed for a funeral.
Is this movie getting marketed toward MTV Generation 2:The Sequel? I don't think so. It's in a bad spot opening next Friday (10/14) against The Fog, a pretty solid contender for 18-24s' dollars, so I worry about it getting buried under that and Domino. I don't want it to fizzle like Hustle & Flow undeservedly did.