Elizabethtown

Have you ever watched a movie that is as close as a dream but the content is actually a true reality. To be honest, that's what I felt when I watched Elizabethtown for the first time, on cable. 

I don't know what movie genre to put it into, all I know is I was laughing and sobbing through the whole movie. If you ask me what's the story about, all I can say that it's about failure, death, and new found love all happening at the same time. How to deal with it? You can just do what Orlando does in the movie. All the little things, you know, like dancing while waving one hand freely up in the air, or take a long road trip with only you and your music and talk to your lost ones as if they're right there beside you. 

All the crazy things that they do in the movie, revolves around the pain and sadness about letting go of someone you truly love, or probably from the decision you have to make whether you should do a cremation for the dead ones or not. 

And then there's Claire. I can use a Claire. If there had not been a Claire, Drew (Orlando Bloom) would just sit there through a melancholy which is unbearable if dealt alone. Just imagine, being a washed up failure and lost billions over a shoe company and then lost a father in the middle of his shock. Claire showed him a way to make peace with the goodbye and the failure, which is to enjoy the day and then cry in that lone road trip you're planning to take, or you can just cry in your bed at night. 

What's fascinating is that, the movie doesn't only show how Drew dealt with the loss, but the mother and the sister's way of making it through the day too. I fell in love with the scene where the mother (Susan Sarandon) tapped dance her goodbye to her husband. It's silly, funny, but sad and mesmerizing at the same time. There's that scene where in the middle of a chaos in the memorial, the sprinkle turned on because of a fire, and Drew's sister just stood there still and soaked while everybody's running, her face showed deep sadness that comes with a smile. I swore she cried, but I'm probably wrong. 

There are little things in the scenes, for example the look that Drew gave Claire in that chaos, which shows gratitude that Drew deeply feels for her, how if she hadn't been there, he would be sad all alone and hidden, but with her he could be happy with her and be a little sad later. Those little things showed how the writer and the director knew about the loss, about saying goodbye that gets a little easier with little gestures like that, while nobody's watching of course. Or of course you can just take time to dance alone with one hand up in the air. Those little things make this movie feels like a dream, because if you've lost someone you love, you'd probably been there before doing the same thing while nobody else is watching. It's a reality, because death, life, and love, who are right next door with each other are always there, they happen again and again, and after you passed each one of them, you move on to the next. It's tiring, but if you have you're Claire, or if you have done those little gestures of simple happiness, I'm sure you'd be fine. If not, take this movie as a suggestion and take a road trip alone to sort things about the heart and how you feel. 

After all those gestures, you get beautifully written dialogues about their thoughts. I fell in love too with the screenplay, there are so many quotes you can take from that movie. Who doesn't love a movie with great quotes? 

To have never taken a solitary road trip across country? I mean everybody`s got to take a road trip, at least once in their lives. Just you and some music.

- Claire

Death and life. And death and life. Right *next door* to each other! There`s like, there`s a hair between them.

- Chuck

I want you to get into the deep beautiful melancholy of everything that`s happened.

- Claire

So you failed. Alright you really failed. You failed. You failed. You failed. You failed. You failed. You failed. You failed. You failed. You failed. You failed. You failed. You failed. You think I care about that? I do understand. You wanna be really great? Then have the courage to fail big and stick around. Make them wonder why you`re still smiling.

- Claire

 I`m going to miss your lips. And everything attached to them.

- Claire