Elizabethtown

I went with one of my friends to see Cameron Crowe's latest film last night, and came away bemused. This was a film where the whole was truly not greater than the sum of it's parts.

I'll explain. Individually, each of the scenes was wonderful. I though they were well acted (even Orlando Bloom, although he struggled with some of the heavier stuff), well scripted, well directed, well shot, and overall, wonderfully brought to life. But none of them seemed to fit with each other.

Yet i still loved this film. It's Cameron Crowe, and lets face it, i'd rather watch a bad Crowe film than a good film by a lot of other directors (although Vanilla Sky is an exception that proves the rule.) It is cliched to talk about the music in Crowe's films, because of all the directors around i think he has the best grasp on using music to make a film special. Think of Almost Famous and the scene int he bus where the band sings Tiny Dancer. He loves music, obvious throughout Almost Famous which is a partial story of his life, and understands it's signifigance.

Perhaps that is what saved this film for me. Without the music making every scene so wonderful, this may have felt like another confusing hotch-potch of a film. Yet both myself and Blackers loved it.

It is great to see a flawed film that still uplifts you. And i will be buying the soundtrack.