Elizabethtown (2005)
Average Rating: 4.6/10
Reviews Counted: 169
Fresh: 47 | Rotten: 122
This story of a floundering shoe designer who returns home for a family tragedy gets lost in undeveloped plot lines and lackluster performances.
Average Rating: 4.1/10
Critic Reviews: 40
Fresh: 8 | Rotten: 32
This story of a floundering shoe designer who returns home for a family tragedy gets lost in undeveloped plot lines and lackluster performances.
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Average Rating: 3.1/5
User Ratings: 332,365
My Rating
Movie Info
A young man in need of a fresh start gets one under highly unexpected circumstances in this emotionally resonant comedy drama from writer and director Cameron Crowe. Drew Baylor (Orlando Bloom) is considered the big success story in his family, having moved away from the small Kentucky town where he was born to California, where he works as a designer for Mercury, the nation's biggest athletic shoe company. But success has begun to elude Drew -- his most recent design was a resounding flop that
Watch It Now
Cast
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Orlando Bloom
Drew Baylor -
Kirsten Dunst
Claire Colborn -
Susan Sarandon
Hollie Baylor -
Judy Greer
Heather Baylor -
Jessica Biel
Ellen Kishmore -
Alec Baldwin
Phil -
Paul Schneider
Jessie Baylor -
Loudon Wainwright III
Uncle Dale -
Paula Deen
Aunt Dora -
Bruce McGill
Bill Banyon -
Emily Rutherfurd
Cindy -
Gailard Sartain
Charles -
Allison Munn
Charlotte -
Ted Manson
Sad Joe -
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Elizabethtown Trailer & Photos
All Critics (176) | Top Critics (41) | Fresh (48) | Rotten (127) | DVD (25)
The hero's nuclear family and kooky rural relatives are so sketchily conceived that none of the intended comedy works, and the balance of the movie is given over to one of Crowe's sugary romances.
Top CriticSo curious, and such a disappointment.
Crowe's capable of much better than this; let's hope he gets back on track with the next one.
The entire enterprise smacks of wish-fulfilment provoked by middle-age male guilt. Uplifting, it most certainly ain't.
The film's problems lie with the lack of spark between a wired Dunst and a bland Bloom.
Leaves one adrift on a raft of morose questions. How could this vacuous movie have got made? Didn't anyone at Paramount, which paid for the film, read the script? And also: What in the world has happened to Cameron Crowe?
It's the fashion today for interpersonal dramas to go for bathos and high-stakes emotional conflict as characters cry out their darkest secrets to each other ... but director Cameron Crowe has taken a different tack.
Heartfelt and intolerable
Orlando Bloom gives a typically abysmal performance as a man-boy who doesn't know if he's old enough to shave yet.
Tired romantic comedy full of cliches. Teens and up.
Awash with sentimentality, this meandering tale falls way short of Crowe's usual standards.
A meandering mood piece, with no tension, no chemistry, no character development, no plot and no point.
A meandering mood piece, with no tension, no chemistry, no character development, no plot and no point.
The performances are solid . . . but it's Kentucky that really steals the show. Crowe paints the eccentricity of the locals with an affectionate brush.
Embaraçosamente infantil, o filme ainda deixa claro que, além da falta de carisma, Bloom é um ator inexpressivo que não possui o menor timing cômico.
Audience Reviews for Elizabethtown
I like Kirsten Dunst, and she is charming here as Clare, but it is not enough to save this film and she's not in it enough.
Unconvincing on almost every level, Orlando cannot hold a film for two hours.
Super Reviewer
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- Claire Colborn: We're the substitute people, remember?
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- Claire Colborn: You want to be really great? Then have the courage to fail big and stick around! Make them wonder why your still smiling.. That's true greatness to me. But, don't listen to me, I'm a Claire.
- Drew Baylor: Well, Thank you Claire..
- Claire Colborn: You're welcome. If you quit trying to break up with me. You're always trying to break up with me. And we're not even together.
- Drew Baylor: I know. Wait, we're not?
- Claire Colborn: Of course not. We're the substitute people remember?
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- Claire Colborn: I'll miss those lips and everything that is attached to it.
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- Claire Colborn: Do you ever just think I'm fooling everybody?
- Drew Baylor: You have no idea.
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- Claire Colborn: I'm impossible to forget, but I'm hard to remember.
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- Claire Colborn: Trust me. Everybody is less mysterious than they think they are.
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It's truly such a shame to see film with this much potential to end up something of a mess. I liked these characters and while many of them were just pure caricatures and felt no real people at all, i still liked to watch their everyday life. This is clearly film that stands on the shoulders of Orlando Bloom. While many might consider him a not qualified enough for a role like this, but i have always find him to be very good actor who can take over major roles anytime. Here he gives fantastic performance as a Drew Baylor who has to cope with grief, love and death. His Drew is the anchor of this film and Bloom shines in a role which just might be his best to date. There are also actors like Kirsten Dunst, Susan Sarandon and Alec Baldwin in here but none of them can match Bloom's charisma. On the other hand none of them has a role as well written as Bloom does, so it is quite unfair to blame these actors from that.
As a film Elizabethtown is one of those feel good films which is destined to make you believe in better tomorrow. It might be a little naive but i admire Crowe's honest approach to his material and even the most corniest moments, and there are many, does not feel too too much to handle. Crowe's biggest strenght is clearly his great ability to use music in the soundtrack and his visual eye. With cinematographer John Toll he captures quite beautiful images from American landscape. Especially the fantastic final fifteen minutes of this film are pleasure to watch. Within those final moments Crowe creates heartbreaking beauty that stands as one of his greatest moments as a director so far. It is just too bad that the rest of the film does not match with those final fifteen minutes.
Underrated and overlooked when it was released, Elizabethtown desreves more praise than it actually got. It is quite good film with charming mood. As an entertainment it is a well made and well meaning two hours with solid production values and a good solid cast.