of round churches and railroad tracks
There's just something about a round church that makes you want to come back--or to never leave. Maybe it's just because it's so damn hard to find the exit when the place is round. Or at least has 16 sides. Who knows?
After watching The Amazing Race tonight I decided to watch a movie I had on DVD. It's due back at the library today so it was now or never (well, I can take it out again but it's often checked out so I'd have to wait a while--I was trying to be dramatic here so stop interrupting with clarifications) for watching Elizabethtown.
I can't quite say that I liked Elizabethtown but it was very interesting. Quite a cast and a lot of talent behind the camera as well. It's almost 3am now so I'll write a review of it later on today when I get into my PCR runs. There's a lot of open time once I get the machine humming along.
11am Review
Elizabethtown is an odd movie that rambles about a bit. To me it seems to be addressing life changing moments. We all have moments that seem to define or change our life: a baby arrives, you get married, a parent dies, you change jobs. Whatever.
Well, the deck is truly stacked in the example of the protagonist of this movie. Drew Baylor (Orlando Bloom) opens the movie contemplating suicide while in a helicopter though we dn't know why. The reason is soon revealed as the President and founder of the company he works for--Alec Baldwin in a thinly veiled version of Phil Knight--fires Drew for having cost the company nearly 1 billion dollars. A financial fiasco that will be revealed to the world in about a week.
As a result Drew decides to kill himself but before he can, his sister calls and tells him that their father just died and Drew needs to fly from Oregon to Kentucky to take care of the arrangements. *whew* Just in the first 10 minutes or so we have Drew facing financial disaster, attempted suicide, being fired and death of a parent--and Cameron Crowe (director) is just getting started.
I think most people watching this film will reflect on what matters in life and what really doesn't, just as Drew does. His catalyst is Claire (Kirsten Dunst), a flight attendant that he meets while flying to Kentucky. Her continual attempts to get Drew to talk to her set the stage for their eventual romance--and her life affirming affect on him. While we can't all have Kirsten Dunst walz into our life to help us identify our priorities (and isn't that a shame!) that doesn't mean it shouldn't be done. However the major changes in Drew's mental outlook seem to happen during a roadtrip that frankly struck me as boring and out of place in this movie, which is why I referred to the movie as meandering. I like where Drew ends up at the finish of Elizabethtown but I think Crowe could have used a different technnique to show his transition.
I liked the movie and would recommend it to others, but to me it's not up to the level of Crowe's Almost Famous.
After watching The Amazing Race tonight I decided to watch a movie I had on DVD. It's due back at the library today so it was now or never (well, I can take it out again but it's often checked out so I'd have to wait a while--I was trying to be dramatic here so stop interrupting with clarifications) for watching Elizabethtown.
I can't quite say that I liked Elizabethtown but it was very interesting. Quite a cast and a lot of talent behind the camera as well. It's almost 3am now so I'll write a review of it later on today when I get into my PCR runs. There's a lot of open time once I get the machine humming along.
11am Review
Elizabethtown is an odd movie that rambles about a bit. To me it seems to be addressing life changing moments. We all have moments that seem to define or change our life: a baby arrives, you get married, a parent dies, you change jobs. Whatever.
Well, the deck is truly stacked in the example of the protagonist of this movie. Drew Baylor (Orlando Bloom) opens the movie contemplating suicide while in a helicopter though we dn't know why. The reason is soon revealed as the President and founder of the company he works for--Alec Baldwin in a thinly veiled version of Phil Knight--fires Drew for having cost the company nearly 1 billion dollars. A financial fiasco that will be revealed to the world in about a week.
As a result Drew decides to kill himself but before he can, his sister calls and tells him that their father just died and Drew needs to fly from Oregon to Kentucky to take care of the arrangements. *whew* Just in the first 10 minutes or so we have Drew facing financial disaster, attempted suicide, being fired and death of a parent--and Cameron Crowe (director) is just getting started.
I think most people watching this film will reflect on what matters in life and what really doesn't, just as Drew does. His catalyst is Claire (Kirsten Dunst), a flight attendant that he meets while flying to Kentucky. Her continual attempts to get Drew to talk to her set the stage for their eventual romance--and her life affirming affect on him. While we can't all have Kirsten Dunst walz into our life to help us identify our priorities (and isn't that a shame!) that doesn't mean it shouldn't be done. However the major changes in Drew's mental outlook seem to happen during a roadtrip that frankly struck me as boring and out of place in this movie, which is why I referred to the movie as meandering. I like where Drew ends up at the finish of Elizabethtown but I think Crowe could have used a different technnique to show his transition.
I liked the movie and would recommend it to others, but to me it's not up to the level of Crowe's Almost Famous.
Comments
As I re-read this post, a question occured to me. It seems no one else has asked; what does "round churches and railroad tracks" have to do with Elizabethtown?