Elizabethtown (2005)

Not quite a monarch, but never the knave

There is a lot written about Cameron Crowe’s 2005 outing Elizabethtown that is negative, rubbishing the film and saying that all of it is bad. But this is wrong, as it is better than many critics have given it credit for. The photography is as fine as in many good-looking films and the soundtrack should be up there with the true greats, it also a fine education in the music of 70s Americana. Not surprising, really, as Crowe started out his professional life as a writer for Rolling Stone, at probably the height of its influence.

So, there are two reasons to take a look at this unloved little gem already. Another two are the central performances by Orlando Bloom and Kirsten Dunst as an air hostess. Bloom may not be everybody’s cup of tea, he just about held Kingdom of Heaven (2005) together, but here he plays well as the put-upon son having to escort his father’s body back to his mother Susan Sarandon’s home after his sudden demise.

He is also the failed whizz-kid entrepreneur of shoe firm who has cost the company, an ersatz Nike, the same amount of money as the value of a small country, or $748million, as Bloom’s former boss Alec Baldwin wearily puts it before firing the sap.

He leaves his former workplace, a building of cutting-edge anonimity, believing only ’success’ as being important, and sets out to kill himself, having dumped all his worldly goods in the street. He is saved by a phone call.

All right, Sarandon’s role is awful – in one scene she tap dances in front of an audience, and I don’t think we needed to see that, just the curtains opening would have been enough. But this performance is not enough to sink the film.

Much of the movie is basically the story of a clash between West coast city values and the rest of Bloom’s family, who are good ol’ boys (but not clichés) from Kentucky, the home of a great horse race and a very fine bourbon. It is also a road movie and an engaging love story. Dunst plays the charms of a Kentuckian believably enough, but then I have been charmed by her performances since her first major role in The Virgin Suicides (1999).

The film is heartwarming, showing the redemptive power of love, nothing more, but it is worth another look. It is also Bloom’s finest piece of acting to date.