While watching Elizabethtown this evening, I kept being reminded of that Buffy quote. Fortunately, I wasn't thinking of it because the movie failed spectacularly, rather Elizabethtown starts with Drew (Orlando Bloom) contemplating the extent of his failure at his job. As the movie progresses we discover that Drew's failure to design the perfect shoe (he lost his company $972 million - "rounded up that's one billion dollars") is really a symptom of his failure to connect to other people and enjoy life.

Near the beginning of the movie when Drew is looking at his dead father in a coffin, he's arrested by the expression on his father's face. After much reflection he determines that the expression is one of whimsy. Basically that describes the film - it's a whimsical journey through death, life, love, loss, relationships, and learning how to embrace it all. Unfortunately this means that if you're going to the movie to enjoy how pretty Orlando Bloom is (and he's very pretty in this movie), you might have this reaction: "That was the most boring 2 hours ever! Sure Orlando was pretty but I didn't understand some of the stuff they were talking about." That's almost a direct quote I overhead from a girl leaving the theatre. I was a little shocked because the conversations don't get all theoretical and complex - perhaps she had trouble following because she was distracted by Orlando's cuteness.

There's some great stuff in Elizabethtown:

- It's very funny, even though - of maybe because - it's dealing with death and failure.
- Susan Sarandon is fabulous as Hollie (Drew's mother). The highlight of her performance is the stand up comedy routine Hollie does that's so funny I actually felt like I was there (I also rarely like stand up comedy so she really wowed me). Sarandon is also impressively good at physical humour.
- Alec Baldwin is excellent in his cameo as Phil, Drew's boss who likes everything in twos (I enjoyed the randomness of that info). He delivers one of the film's funniest lines when he laments that he'll have to cut the environmental watchdog division of his shoe company (!) because of the one billion dollars Drew lost the company: "We could have saved the planet." What makes it funny is Baldwin's delivery which falls perfectly between earnest and manipulatively smarmy.
- Judy Greer (Kitty on Arrested Development) shines as Drew's sister.
- I enjoyed that Kirsten Dunst's character is very quirky and definitely an individual. Sometimes I felt that Dunst played her a little too cute though.
- There's this awesome - kind of random, but in a good way - video starring this guy Rusty who uses the promise of blowing up a house to get kids to behave. We even get to see the house blow up. Awesome dude!
- The entire memorial sequence is hysterically funny, especially the part with the band and the bird (once you see it you'll know what I mean).

As much as I enjoyed the whimsical nature of the film, it felt like it wandered a little too much off course sometimes. What makes the movie work is that there's emotional issues at the core. Overall a very enjoyable movie and exactly what I was in the mood for - uplifting with some moments of thoughtfulness included - I'd give it a B+ or an A-.

The message of Elizabethtown is the same as the tagline for Chuck and Cindy's wedding (an amusing aspect of the film) which is "Lovin' Life" in all it's variables.