If you can make it through the overlong, flat backstory to get there, there is some really good entertainment to be had in this film. Now, I quite like films that require patience, as elements build toward a payoff, but I’m convinced that most of first two thirds of Elizabethtown was entirely unnecessary, other than as visual filler so director Cameron Crowe can show us again how much he loves music.
The story that fuels the soundtrack is that of Drew Baylor (Orlando Bloom), whose elaborate suicide plan, following a very large and soon-to-be public business failure, is derailed when he must travel to Kentucky to attend to funeral details following his father’s untimely death. En route he meets a plucky flight attendant (Kirsten Dunst) whose passion for mapmaking and scrapbooking and mix CD burning knows no bounds. (Not even the bounds of realism — she would have required Martha Stewart’s staff to produce the “map” that features near the end of the film.)
Bloom’s performance is poor, yet Susan Sarandon sparkles in a small role as the mom/widow, as does Paul Schneider as the black sheep cousin. (And for fans of the musical Wainwright family, Rufus‘ father Loudon does a good turn as Uncle Dale.) By the time we reach the memorial service and the final road trip, and before the sugary ending, there are a few great out-loud laughs, and a film that turns out to be good reveals that it had the potential to be much better.
Here are this morning’s Oscar-nominated films, alphabetically. The nominees for foreign language film and documentary feature are compiled at the end of the list. (Short format nominees are listed in a 
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