elizabethtown

over the weekend i ended up going to the theater and seeing elizabethtown. i wasnt totally pumped for it, but i wasnt dreading it either. i kind of like orlando bloom, i think kirsten dunst is kinda cute, and ive never been too impressed or disappointed with the director camron crow. so i didnt have too much by way of expectations, good or bad. i was rooting for it to be a good movie. and it is. kindof.
actually its two good movies. there are two really strong plots going through the film. one centers on the guy's dad dying and he has to go down and get the body from his dad's relatives. while he's down there he realizes how the extended family are so real and loving and he starts to really understand his dad. the other story is about how he is ready to give up on life and then happens to meet a girl who has extra life to give. they meet and fall in love as she tries to teach him to live and focus on living instead of working. both stories are done well, they are told in a way that makes you understand the characters and enjoy the path the movie is taking you on. the only problem is that the director cant decide which story is the most important one. just as the dad stuff gets good, he switches to the girl stuff. just when the girl stuff starts to develop, he switches back to the dad stuff. it was kind of frustrating and actually made the film feel like it was alot longer and more drawn out than it really was. it could have been a great movie if it had just picked one of the plots instead of trying to be everything.