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 A
uniquely crafted comedy set in the key of life, “Elizabethtown” is
the story of a truly unexpected romance that develops against the
backdrop of a hilariously elaborate memorial. A life-affirming, comic
fable that takes on matters of life and death in a suprising and
heartfelt way, “Elizabethtown” is the journey of a young man turned in
an unexpected direction and the woman who helps him brighten his outlook
on the world around him. The film stars Orlando Bloom, Kirsten Dunst,
Susan Sarandon, Alec Baldwin, Bruce McGill, Judy Greer, Jessica Biel and
Paul Schneider. “How do you say goodbye to someone you’ve barely even
said hello to?” asks screenwriter/director Cameron Crowe in his new
film, “Elizabethtown.” Crowe, who also won an Academy Award® in 2000 for
his original screenplay for “Almost Famous,” again draws on his own
experiences—
the emotions he felt at his father’s unexpected passing—
to inspire a motion picture.
“Elizabethtown” is
about a quiet Oregon shoe designer who gets to know his father and
his own family roots only after his dad’s death. He is aided in his
journey by an unstoppably optimistic woman, and a host of family
members, who combine in unique ways to teach him what’s it’s like to be
truly alive. Crowe says that one of his goals with “Elizabethtown” was
to make the type of film his father liked best: one that could achieve
genuine emotion but always with humor close at hand. “A movie that could
blend tears and laughter… that was his favorite combo,” says Crowe. “He
and my mom actually had a name for that very special mix, they called it
‘Bread and Chocolate,’ after a foreign film they’d fallen in love with.
Later, as a director, it became one of my favorite mixes too-- a movie
that introduced you to characters who felt real, who took you into their
lives and when that movie was over… you missed those people you’d met
two hours earlier.”
 “Cameron
has an ability to take life and put it on the screen,” says Orlando
Bloom, who takes on the role of the central character, Drew Baylor. “He
makes it so real and so human that it just breaks your heart and makes
you laugh all at the same time.” Kirsten Dunst, who plays Claire, the
passionately positive flight attendant who changes Drew’s life, agrees.
“This movie is about life. It’s not just a comedy or a just a drama or
just a romance—
it’s just life. It’s all about the intimate moments between people. It
has so many different stories combined. It’s unpretentious and sometimes
almost ‘slice of life’ in its reality. But if you look closely, every
line and every action means something. It’s a Cameron Crowe movie.” In
1989, Crowe had just seen the theatrical release of his directorial
debut, “Say Anything.” The movie had been released quietly, with little
fanfare. It’s fortunes changed suddenly when the movie received an
important early rave review from Siskel and Ebert. Crowe’s father was
visiting family in Kentucky, having just seen the pivotal positive
review and was in the midst of sharing the great news with family
members, when he unexpectedly died of a heart attack. It was a blow for
the young filmmaker and it left a lasting impression on him which is
reflected in the film.
With “Elizabethtown,” Crowe found it was time to honor his
father. “It’s a funny thing,” says Crowe, “but from the very beginning,
I’d always resisted writing very personally about my own life and
family. Even the books I loved growing up were rarely first-person
stories. Then, when I turned 18, I wrote an article for ‘Rolling Stone’
called ‘How I Learned About Sex.’ It was under assignment, I had run out
of other ways to tell the story. I wrote it in first-person. It was
instantly a breakthrough for me. People responded resoundingly,
immediately, wrote me letters. Friends and editors said, ‘I felt like
you were writing about my life too.’ And it’s happened consistently ever
since. The more personal the story, the more it seemed to matter to
people. After ‘Almost Famous,’ I was asked a lot—
what about your dad? What was he like? I’d written a short story about
him called ‘My Father’s Highway.’ It was one of my favorites, though it
lived in my drawer. And then one day…” The last time he saw what he
calls “these electric blue hillsides” was when he returned for his
father’s funeral in 1989. That was all the inspiration he needed. As
Crowe recalls, “I dropped off the Heart tour, got a rental car, got lost
in Kentucky, and wrote the whole story for the script in a burst.” For
Crowe, telling this story was an extremely personal and often emotional
endeavor. It was also a feast of colorful characters, and a vivid
glimpse of life and loss and inspiration in modern America. “I always
liked the idea of telling a story populated with failure and fiasco but
in the middle of it is a person who exists only for love,” continues
Crowe. “I often write about these characters because they’re heroes to
me—
they breathe in failure and spit it back out and move on. They believe
in carrying on with life and honoring positivity. Besides, the other
option is a lot darker and usually not as much fun.”
 In
the film, Drew is right at the center of his shoe company’s fiasco
when he learns that his father has died half a continent away. He is
assigned by his mother to travel to Kentucky, retrieve his father’s
body, and bring him back home to Portland, Oregon. That’s when Drew runs
headfirst into what Crowe calls the film’s “messenger of love,” Claire,
a flight attendant with a mission: helping someone in trouble. “She
immediately makes a project out of him,” Crowe says. Dunst was attracted
to the role by the director’s genuine feeling and the honest emotion of
the film. She says, “I hope that we made a beautiful story that people
will really respond to and get emotionally moved by. It was one of the
best characters that I’ve ever read for a woman my age—
it was so well written. It was just really easy for me to just slide
into these words. Claire's not self-deprecating at all; in fact, she’s
very positive all the time. She’s really just there to help the other
person—
I can relate to that. She’s the type of girl who’s there to make people
happy and help people,” says Dunst. Portraying an airline attendant came
easily for the actress as her mother worked as an airline stewardess in
the 1960s and ‘70s. “It’s in my blood,” the actress jokes. Working with
Bloom was also a positive experience for Dunst. “He has such a
vulnerability about him and such a sweetness. He’s not jaded at all.
He’s just so easy to be around because he’s a dork like me; neither of
us had to try to be cool with each other. It was just so very easy.” UB
Distributed by: Paramount Pictures
Rating: 
Genre: Drama/Comedy
The Cast
Orlando Bloom as Drew Baylor
Kirsten Dunst as Claire Colburn
Susan Sarandon as Hollie Baylor
Alec Baldwin as Phil DeVoss
Bruce McGill as Bill Banyon
Judy Greer as Heather Baylor
Jessica Biel as Ellen Kishmore
Paul Schneider as Jessie Baylor
Loudon Wainwright III as Uncle Dale [as Loudon Wainwright]
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