Elizabethtown (Widescreen Edition)
by Cameron Crowe
List Price:
Our Price: $3.01
You Save: $5.98 (67%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $0.01 (click here)
Category: DVD
See more DVD details
Buy this DVD movie at online store in your country
Canada
Canada
DVD details
Actor: Alec Baldwin, Bruce McGill, Kirsten Dunst, Orlando Bloom, Susan SarandonDirector: Cameron Crowe
Brand: PARAMOUNT HOME VIDEO
Cinematographer: John Toll
Producer: Cameron Crowe
Writer: Cameron Crowe
Producer: Andy Fischer
Producer: Donald J. Lee Jr.
Producer: Paula Wagner
Producer: Tom Cruise
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround; French (Original Language), Dolby Digital 5.1
Format: Dolby, DVD, NTSC, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.66:1
Running Time: 123 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2006-02-07
Audience Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Studio: Paramount
Product features:
- Condition: New
- Format: DVD
- Dolby; DVD; Widescreen; NTSC
DVD Reviews of Elizabethtown (Widescreen Edition)
DVD Review: When Good Ideas Go Bad and Tear Up the Furniture While You're Out
Summary: 1 Stars
It's hard for me to measure exactly how bad this film is- is it because I watched it with such high expectations that it fell so far short, or was it really just a big old mess from any perspective?
Although I've loved Cameron Crowe's previous films such as "Say Anything", "Almost Famous" and "Jerry Maguire", there has always been a smidgen of grandiloquence in them, a sentimentality and self-importance that was just off-beat or real enough to avoid treacherous groans. However, with this film I have the impression that Crowe was shooting for the moon and instead of taking us on the journey in Lloyd Dobler's Chevy Malibu with its sticky tape deck or down the highway singing "Free Fallin'" with Mr Maguire or crammed in with a band on a rickety tour bus named Doris, he has- like Wile. E Coyote would do- shoveled as much of everything that made those other films great into a big old cannon, jammed himself in with the declaration that this film is closest to his heart, and pointed it to the sky.
It was never much of a surprise in those old Warner cartoons when the coyote's plan backfired so I guess I shouldn't have been so disappointed that my hopes for "Elizabethtown" blew up in my face. But what set those expectations of mine so high and made the viewing of the film so frustrating was that all the elements of a great film were there, from concept to actors to the essential Crowe feature of soundtrack. It was simply executed very poorly. And, in some instances, actual execution would have been downright commendable.
The general idea driving the plot- a young succesful man becomes disillusioned after experiencing huge failure but meets a young woman who helps him recover and reignites his spirit and passion- is solid enough. It proved its mettle in "Jerry Maguire"- this film just kicks the idea up to the max. Rather than just being fired and walking out of the office carrying a baggie of goldfish, Drew Baylor in "Elizabethtown" barrels straight down suicide alley, rigging out an exercise machine to complete the job (a scene which sets the ludicrous bar pretty high, yet later scenes still manage to bump their heads). The woman of redemption, played here by Kirsten Dunst, has no valid connection to the leading man through work or anything else so her penchant for popping up here there and everywhere in Drew's life presents a far more worrisome bundle of stalker and co-dependency issues than Renee Zellweger's single mom sweetness. And instead of Cuba Gooding's difficult but ebulliant football player shouting "Show me the money!", we have Susan Sarandon as Drew's mother performing the most wretched memorial to her dead husband that practically demands the viewer bathe their eyeballs in lye afterwards.
Note: I am not against comedy-and-dance routines at memorials per se- a good Thriller interpretation or Eddie Murphy "Delirious" rendition goes a long way on a solemn occasion- but I swear, if anyone does a routine like Sarandon's at my memorial, they'll be scouting the Yellow Pages for a good exorcism priest.
The plot problems escalate from there, with far too many characters and nowhere scenes and jumps and cuts and hacks being piled onto the already flimsy structure, until it all just throws itself into the middle of the highway and lets the 20min road trip finale mow it down to the aspartame ending. It is a hodgepodge of genres and themes and half-baked ideas and I suppose being that its protagonist is a twentysomething, this confused sense of self is at least a reflection of that age in life. However, if this movie was indeed a twentysomething person, it's not the guy whooping it up with his friends and carrying on like an entertaining loon, it's not even the guy sitting around a table with a caffeine IV drip discussing the political import of old TV shows; it's the one slumped down the end of the bar sulking into a fancy beer and trying to impress the nice bar wench with pilfered philosophies.
All that said, I still harbor some speck of belief- or perhaps curiosity- that had the film been made with different lead actors, it might not have drowned in this well-meaning morass. It may simply have been the way the parts were written, but Orlando Bloom had nowhere near enough charisma to pull the character of Drew Baylor out of the self-pitying dumps and into the audience's affections, and Kirsten Dunst relied so much on a smug quirk of a smile that it began to seem more like a physical tic than an expression of Penny Lane-type mystique. Neither character was imbued by the actors with a real sense of life or depth, which made it all the more frustrating because some of the dialogue and scenes were worthy of much more. Ultimately, Dunst and Bloom were merely window-dressing and the store was empty, burgled by the memory of better characters and the possibility of better actors.
What made the two-hours-plus film bearable was the music. Crowe has a terrific track record (ha! pun not intended) with compiling soundtracks for his films and while this may be the strongest selection of music- the album is terrific- its use in the actual film does not nearly reach the effectiveness of Springsteen's "Secret Garden" in 'Jerry Maguire' or Elton John's "Tiny Dancer" in 'Almost Famous'. This is somewhat ironic, given that music is specifically built into this film thanks to the road trip instructions Dunst's character gives to Drew, but as on the car journey it does the same throughout the film itself, merely providing background noise and appropriate songs but no focal points, no hook from which to hang the movie in the viewer's mind.
Which leads me to the only piece of advice I gleaned from this movie so riddled with hints- buy the soundtrack, and make up your own movie in your head as you lay back and listen to it. Make it a romance, a comedy, a drama, an action flick or a weepy- it'll be better than this, I betcha.
Description of Elizabethtown (Widescreen Edition)
DVD - MovieElizabethtown has all of the elements of a great Cameron Crowe movie, but none of the Cameron Crowe vision that made Almost Famous work. It's mostly a series of sweet moments, each capped with the right song at the right time; in fact, the soundtrack is the real star of the movie, and the right song is all there is to piece together a film that is much less than the sum of its parts.
From the start of Elizabethtown, big contrasts are evoked: death and life, success and failure are side by side, so we're told. When the movie starts, Drew Baylor (Orlando Bloom) is experiencing failure and death in spades: the shoe he spent eight years designing for Mercury (a thinly-veiled copy of Nike) has been recalled, costing his company $972 million dollars. On the verge of a suicide attempt, he learns his father has died, and Drew flies to Kentucky to retrieve the body to Oregon for cremation. On the red-eye to Louisville he meets Claire Colburn (Kirsten Dunst), a perky flight att'ndant with a charming flair for cute lines ("I'm impossible to forget, but I?m hard to remember," she chirps). Once in Elizabethtown, Drew tries to plan a memorial while dealing with relatives who have their own agenda in addition to his manic family back in Oregon, all while facing the reality that in a few days he'll be known nationally as one of his industry's most legendary failures. Yet still he manages to connect with Claire on an all-night cell phone conversation--complete with the requisite watching of the sunrise--and to strike up a furtive romance.
So we now have death and life side by side. But despite these dramatic shifts, what sets up to be a roller coaster ride of a film flattens out to a milquetoast middle ground with no real life of its own. Drew Baylor has suffered two tragic personal losses in the course of one day, but you wouldn't know it from Bloom's lethargic performance. There's not much to Claire either. Her whole character is made up mostly of cutesy quotable lines and mysterious little smirks. In the end, Elizabethtown is a film that doesn't know what it wants to be, and unfortunately there's no payoff, other than a few memorable lines and a great soundtrack. --Dan Vancini
Bestsellers in DVD
![The Story of Jeremiah [VHS] Image](/images/noimg.gif)
The Story of Jeremiah [VHS]Vision Video; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Wresting With God [VHS]by Vision Video
Vision Video; Published: 1990-10-01; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Price in other shops:
Study Bible Video with Workbook [VHS]Spring Arbor Distributors; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Best price: $7.95
Price in other shops:
Tempo:Childrens TV Favourites Video [VHS]HarperCollins Audio; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Best price: $9.17
Price in other shops:
Tempo.Herbs:Parseley'Sb/ Party Video [VHS]HarperCollins Audio; VHS Tape; VHS Video
![Strike the Original Match [VHS] Image](/images/Strike-the-Original-Match-VHS-0001374079-X.jpg)
Strike the Original Match [VHS]New Liberty Films; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Price in other shops:
![Medjugorje The Miracles and the Message [VHS] Image](/images/Medjugorje-The-Miracles-and-the-Message-VHS-0001373293-X.jpg)
Medjugorje The Miracles and the Message [VHS]JPN Film Production; Release date: 1995-12-15; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Best price: $29.99
Mayo Clinic Echocardiography Review Course for Boards and Recertification DVD 2008by Mayo
DVD
Price in other shops:
Pediatric Diagnostic Imaging DVD: Single Userby Oakstone
DVD
Price in other shops:
Cost Accounting [VHS]by Charles T. Horngren, George Foster, Srikant M. Datar, Howard Teall
Pearson Canada, Toronto; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Similar DVDs, VHS Video, Audio CDs
Jerry MaguireTeam Marketing; Release date: 1996-12-13; DVD
Best price: $0.94
Price in other shops:
Garden StateFOX Home Entertainment; Release date: 2004-12-28; Published: 2004-12-01; DVD
Best price: $5.65
Price in other shops:
The Family Stone (Widescreen Edition)Fox; Release date: 2006-05-02; DVD
Best price: $3.41
Price in other shops:
Failure to Launch (Widescreen Special Collector's Edition)PARAMOUNT HOME VIDEO; Release date: 2006-06-27; Published: 2006-06-01; DVD
Best price: $0.94
Price in other shops:
Almost FamousMCA; Release date: 2001-03-13; Published: 2001-03-01; DVD
Best price: $5.21
Price in other shops:
The Weather Man (Widescreen Edition)PARAMOUNT HOME VIDEO; Release date: 2006-02-21; Published: 2006-02-01; DVD
Best price: $0.93
Price in other shops:
Elizabethtown - Volume 2Release date: 2006-02-07; Music CD
Best price: $5.51
Price in other shops:
ElizabethtownRelease date: 2005-09-13; Music CD
Best price: $6.10
Price in other shops:
WimbledonUniversal Studios; Release date: 2004-12-28; Published: 2004-12-01; DVD
Best price: $2.93
Price in other shops:
A Lot Like Love (Widescreen Edition)Buena Vista Home Video; Release date: 2005-08-23; DVD
Best price: $3.90
Price in other shops: