Rencontres à Elizabethtown

Okay, I will admit up front that maybe Orlando Bloom doesn't do much for this movie but add a pretty face and certainly I am a sucker for Kirsten Dunst. Implausible plot - sure. But entertaining? I thought thoroughly so and with a good heart. The movie is very funny. Not slapstick, but funny. I laughed out loud often. The movie really doesn't take itself too seriously and that works for me. As for the acting . . . maybe I am being too hard on Orlando, because nothing he does is particularly bad, just forgetful I guess. But I will admit that I just felt like the cast wasn't particularly important to the movie. The movie has a feel to it that I connected with. The music, the visuals, the ease with which it flowed - just struck a chord. Overall, though it isn't that the cast is bad - they simply aren't noteworthy. In fact, I cannot remember a performance that was distracting or didn't mesh. It just seemed to me that the writing, the direction and the composition of the movie produced a feeling, triggered thoughts that made this movie a special event, time well spent ... who knows - I liked it.

I don't know why this movie seems to have fallen by the wayside, but I haven't met anyone outside of my family who's actually seen it.

This movie is insanely underrated. It's a near perfect blend of subtle comedy and heartbreaking tragedy. It's deep and meaningful without being pretentious. It's beautifully shot without being overly artsy. It's smartly written, expertly acted, and perfectly timed. It's relatable but fresh.

Everything about this movie makes me continually want to come back to it. The soundtrack, the dialogue, the story, it's all absolutely perfect. I just wish more people knew about it.

I loved Kirsten Dunst, who's lovable because of her odd and weird habits. All the actors played marvelous characters which added to the movie's charm. Great unique story. I'm happy I came crossed it by accident.

I don't know. It seems to me that Americans have lost their taste for "small" films - films that emphasize character, rather than explosions and movement. You get the same sort of comments with movies like Tim Burton's wonderful Big Fish or Spielberg's Terminal. I will admit that the Dunst character is a cliché, but this movie is really about the extras, the characters that step out of the background, have their moment, and step back again. Paula Dean stands out as a woman to whom family -- *all* her family -- is all-important and who keeps it together with food and photographs. I'm not from Kentucky or the South, although I've lived South for a number of years. I'm not that interested in *my* extended family -- and in that respect I'm far closer to the Bloom character than to the Dean character. But I recognize that this film is a great portrait of a certain kind of family life. Also, the dead father becomes a very well-rounded character indeed, as you think about the contradictions of his life. This is a film that expects the audience to do a little work, and it pays very well for that work.

Enjoyed the movie but wonder what a shoe designer has to do with a product recall. There would be prototypes developed and significant testing conducted before a company invested a billion dollars in production of a shoe designed by anyone, much less someone who was hired from a national scholarship program...