Mixed Emotions come together in 'Elizabethtown'
Ashley Batchelor, Lifestyles Editor
Issue date: 10/19/05 Section: Lifestyles
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Death is usually portrayed both in life and film as a serious thing. But can death, or actually the events surrounding it, be funny? One film recently out in theaters tries to join sadness and laughter together to create a motion picture anyone can relate to.
"Elizabethtown" does this wonderfully in a laugh-out-loud kind of way. There are very few actual sad parts in the film. There are quite a few touching parts. However, the laughter outnumbers both of these other things tremendously.
In the film, Drew Baylor (Orlando Bloom) gets fired from his job and loses his father to a heart attack all in one day. He is actually in the process of permanently putting himself out of his misery when he receives the call about his father from his sister Heather (Judy Greer).
The suicide attempt is all because of a shoe he spent eight years creating, which flopped, costing the company he worked for $972 million.
After losing his job and hearing the fatal news about his father, he is forced by his mother (Susan Sarandon) to go to the town of his death, Elizabethtown, Ky., to bury him. His romantic interest in the film, Claire Colburn (Kirsten Dunst), finally pops up as the flight attendant on his plane ride to Kentucky.
The film starts to pick up momentum at this point. After the ride ends and the two have started their witty banter with each other, Drew calls her later in the evening, and the phone call last the entire night. Their conversation is the perfect blend of discussions about everything and nothing.
However, their random conversations and obvious adoration for one another are not what drive the film. The odd moments of laughter keep the viewers interested.
In what other film will an audience watch a clip of "Rusty's Learn to Listen" video, which shows a man telling kids to listen to their parents if they want to watch him blow up a termite-infested house? It sounds like a crazy thought, but the second the kids start screaming to blow up the house and the explosion is shown from three different angles, the laughter comes pouring out.
"Elizabethtown" does this wonderfully in a laugh-out-loud kind of way. There are very few actual sad parts in the film. There are quite a few touching parts. However, the laughter outnumbers both of these other things tremendously.
In the film, Drew Baylor (Orlando Bloom) gets fired from his job and loses his father to a heart attack all in one day. He is actually in the process of permanently putting himself out of his misery when he receives the call about his father from his sister Heather (Judy Greer).
The suicide attempt is all because of a shoe he spent eight years creating, which flopped, costing the company he worked for $972 million.
After losing his job and hearing the fatal news about his father, he is forced by his mother (Susan Sarandon) to go to the town of his death, Elizabethtown, Ky., to bury him. His romantic interest in the film, Claire Colburn (Kirsten Dunst), finally pops up as the flight attendant on his plane ride to Kentucky.
The film starts to pick up momentum at this point. After the ride ends and the two have started their witty banter with each other, Drew calls her later in the evening, and the phone call last the entire night. Their conversation is the perfect blend of discussions about everything and nothing.
However, their random conversations and obvious adoration for one another are not what drive the film. The odd moments of laughter keep the viewers interested.
In what other film will an audience watch a clip of "Rusty's Learn to Listen" video, which shows a man telling kids to listen to their parents if they want to watch him blow up a termite-infested house? It sounds like a crazy thought, but the second the kids start screaming to blow up the house and the explosion is shown from three different angles, the laughter comes pouring out.
