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Elizabethtown: a layman's chickflick

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I didn't really know what to expect going into this movie. Kassie had told me the basic plot, but I was a little hesitant about seeing Legolas and MJ in a chick flick. As it turns out, it wasn't as much of a chick flick as I thought. How would one define a chick flick? Well, next semester in theory I am sure I could tell you in a more professional way but I think it goes something like.

Character A wants a boy/girl. A meets B. B and A have a series of growing relationship building experiences. A finds out some horrible thing about B (or somehow there is a falling out of sorts). A finds out that that horrible thing is not true, or they get over it, and it is resolved. In the end A gets B and they get married, or are re-united.

I can say this, because I have seen this pattern multiple times (Pride and Prejudice, Hitch, 10 things I hate about you, Win a Date With Tad Hamilton, Shallow Hal, Notting Hill, etc etc etc). I am not saying it is bad per se, because the movies I really like (all of them) follow similar patterns on the hero's journey and so forth.

So keeping this in mind, I was pleasantly surprised that this film was not about couples cohabiting and all that as it was about learning to find joy in life. Maybe it wasn't so much about that even, but the ability to see life as the blessing that it really is and how things such as family, relationships, history, and human fellowship are the things that really give us the sense of belong and love that we need to get satisfaction from life.

Orlando Bloom actually doesn't always speak in a high, quick paced elvin/pirate tone, he sounded very much like a regular man. Even MJ was different than the last time I saw her when she was screeching to Peter Parker "Go get 'em tiger!" She was less obnoxiously sentimental, and more character driven and spunky. It was neat to see how the combination of these characters generated questions on the viewers mind about life outlook and experience.

Though the film almost hardly ever had a break from the continual montage sequences with contemporary pop music, I found that it was striving for righteous goals in teaching the viewer about what matters most. In this review I have done very little to actually say anything about the plot - but that is fine since there is the internet you are reading this on and all that.

Beware of some language and the regular "1 bad scene". This is a chick flick that actually isn't too chickish!


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