Elizabethtown (2005)

During an outrageous memorial for a Southern patriarch, an unexpected romance blooms between a young woman and man.

Director:

Cameron Crowe

Writer:

Cameron Crowe

Stars:

Orlando Bloom, Kirsten Dunst, Susan Sarandon

1 win & 4 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Orlando Bloom	...	Drew Baylor
Kirsten Dunst	...	Claire Colburn
Susan Sarandon	...	Hollie Baylor
Alec Baldwin	...	Phil Devoss
Bruce McGill	...	Bill Banyon
Judy Greer	...	Heather Baylor
Jessica Biel	...	Ellen Kishmore
Paul Schneider	...	Jessie Baylor
Loudon Wainwright III	...	Uncle Dale (as Loudon Wainwright)
Gailard Sartain	...	Charles Dean
Jed Rees	...	Chuck Hasboro
Paula Deen	...	Aunt Dora
Dan Biggers	...	Uncle Roy
Alice Marie Crowe	...	Aunt Lena
Tim Devitt	...	Mitch Baylor

Storyline

After causing a loss of almost one billion dollars in his company, the shoe designer Drew Baylor decides to commit suicide. However, in the exact moment of his act of despair, he receives a phone call from his sister telling him that his beloved father had just died in Elizabethtown, and he should bring him back since his mother had problem with the relatives of his father. He travels in an empty red eye flight and meets the attendant Claire Colburn, who changes his view and perspective of life.

---

Plot Keywords:

kentucky | shoes | death | love | elizabethtown kentucky | 

---

Taglines:

The Best Place To Find Yourself.

---

Genres:

Comedy | Drama | Romance

---

Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG-13 for language and some sexual references

Details

Official Sites:

Official site [uk] Paramount Pictures [us]

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

14 October 2005 (USA)

Also Known As:

Rencontres à Elizabethtown

Filming Locations:

Anadarko, Oklahoma, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$57,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend:

$472,773 (Spain) (11 November 2005)

Gross:

$26,838,389 (USA) (16 December 2005)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Paramount Pictures, Cruise/Wagner Productions, Vinyl Films

Technical Specs

Runtime:

123 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

On Claire's road map for Drew, there is a quote by R. Hammond and J. Bebe. Russell Hammond and Jeff Bebe were two of Stillwater's members in Cameron Crowe's previous film Almost Famous.

---

Goofs

When Drew is looking at his dad in the casket you can see his "dead" dad quite clearly crack a smile. However, based on the context of the story, this clearly was an attempt by the filmmakers to show Drew daydreaming and/or hallucinating when faced with the emotion of seeing his dead father.

---

Quotes

Hollie Baylor: All forward motion counts.

---

Crazy Credits

This film opens with the 1954 "VistaVision" Paramount Pictures logo - instead of the new 'live-action' one. This logo was used at the head of all Paramount films released from the mid-1950s through to 1986.

---

Connections

Referenced in Dreaming Alaska (2012)

---

Soundtracks

"Don't I Hold You"
(1999)
Written by Richard Brennan, Peter Harney & Scott Levesque
Performed by Wheat
Courtesy of Aware Records/Columbia Records

User Reviews

Worth Seeing on a Sunny Autumn Afternoon

I went into this movie hopeful but not expecting too much, given the poor reviews I had seen for it. I walked out impressed and touched, surprised by how much I really enjoyed it, and wondering if other people would give it a chance and enjoy it, as well. Time will tell.

The things that I liked about this movie are easy to feel but not so easy to describe. There were moments that really got to me, bits of scenes that touched me and caught in my memory, and time and again I found myself nodding and smiling and thinking, "I know exactly how he feels," or "I remember that feeling." Somehow, this story was good in a different way than Garden State was good. I loved Garden State, and the plot of Elizabethtown is enough like Garden State that it was hard not to have it in mind when I sat down in the theatre, but the two movies are really quite different. Crowe's Elizabethtown felt more real than Braf's Garden State, and somewhat less contrived.

Elizabethtown is the kind of movie you should see on a sunny autumn afternoon after a walk with an old friend. It has a joy to it, a basic sense of optimism and a light touch, so that it never crossed the line from sadness into tragedy and melodrama. Crowe doesn't let us fall into sentiment, but he deftly weaves a story that could have been corny and sentimental in lesser hands. I read critics who said he let the music play the emotions for us, but I can't agree, because I think that the cast did an excellent job portraying people I could really feel for and with, especially Orlando Bloom.

Orlando Bloom's Drew Baylor is introduced in a moment of pain and panic, utterly emotionally blocked, repeating "I'm fine" while feeling suicidal and saying "My condolences" to strangers and distant relatives as if the loss of his father belongs to them and not to him. In the film, he relaxes and grows emotionally under the tutelage of Kirsten Dunst's Claire, and together they work their way through the American heartland into a tender relationship and a new perspective on the meaning and value of life and success. His American accent and her Southern drawl might both be a little off at times, but it was easy to forgive in the interest of watching what happened next.

From the side stories of the secondary characters (Susan Sarandon is delightful, as always, in a turn as a widow whose reaction to her husband's death is to reach out and grab life with both hands) to the road trip into Americana, all the quirky little moments that felt real and sincere made this movie one that I enjoyed watching and will think about and remember. I hope you enjoy it, too!