Elizabethtown

This topic contains:

• overall comments and recommendations
• details about Elizabethtown's classification and consumer advice lines
• a review of Elizabethtown completed by Young Media Australia (YMA) on 8 November 2005.

Overall comments and recommendations

Elizabethtown is a romantic comedy and story of self-discovery through loss. Adults may find the overlapping layers of the gentle storyline entertaining, however it does tend to meander and some aspects of the plot seem to deviate unnecessarily from the central story. The quality of the acting is solid and the scenes along the Mississippi during Drew’s road trip home are quite beautiful. Young children may find the themes of film uninteresting and the dialogue difficult to follow. Older children and adolescents may find the developing romance between the two leads appealing, but themes of loss and failure may be less interesting.

About the movie

This section contains details about the movie, including its classification by the Office of Film and Literature Classification (OFLC) and the associated consumer advice lines.

YMA review

This review of the movie Elizabethtown contains the following information:

• a synopsis of the story
• use of violence
• material that may scare children
• product placement
• sexual references
• nudity and sexual activity
• use of substances
• coarse language
• the movie's message

A synopsis of the story

Drew Baylor (Orlando Bloom) is a successful designer with Mercury Worldwide Shoes. When his latest design for the company is a complete failure, resulting in a 972 million dollar loss, he is fired by his boss (Alec Baldwin), dumped by his girlfriend (Jessica Biel) and he begins contemplating suicide. His plans are put on hold when his sister rings to tell him their father, Mitchell, has just died. Drew is sent by his mother (Susan Sarandon) to bring his father’s body home.

Drew travels to Elizabethtown in Kentucky, befriending a friendly stewardess, Claire(Kirsten Dunst) on the way. He is warmly welcomed by his father’s extended family, with whom he has had little contact for many years. Over the course of the next few days, and with the assistance of Claire’s persistent optimism, Drew learns more about his father and family, while coping with his own sense of loss and failure.

Use of violence

Research shows that children are at risk of learning that violence is an acceptable means of conflict resolution when violence is glamourised, performed by an attractive hero, successful, has few real life consequences, is set in a comic context and / or is mostly perpetrated by male characters with female victims, or by one race against another.

Repeated exposure to violent content can reinforce the message that violence is an acceptable means of conflict resolution. Repeated exposure also increases the risks that children will become desensitised to the use of violence in real life or develop an exaggerated view about the prevalence and likelihood of violence in their own world.

There is one mild instance of violence when a video is put on for the children to watch. The video shows a man blowing up a home. It is shown for comic effect and all the children watching it are enthralled.

Material that may scare children

Under eight

Children under eight are most likely to be frightened by scary visual images, such as monsters, physical transformations, the death of a parent or child abandoned or separated from parents, children or animals being hurt or threatened and / or natural disasters.

There are a few scenes that could concern children under the age of eight, including:

• when Drew returns home after being fired, he sets up his exercise bike and attaches a knife to it with the intention of killing himself. Although there are some comical moments (e.g. the knife dislodging, getting interrupted by a phone call) that lighten the mood of the scene, young children may still be concerned.
  
• Drew attends a viewing of his father’s body at the funeral home. His father is shown lying in the casket and at one point following Drew’s train of thoughts, his father smiles.
  
• During the Memorial service, Drew’s cousin’s band, Rukus, perform. Their stage prop, a giant papier mache bird, catches on fire as it flies over the guests. The guests are shown initially to scream and run out of the room, but later as the sprinklers come on, they are laughing and dancing.

Over the age of eight

Children aged eight to thirteen are most likely to be frightened by realistic threats and dangers, violence or threat of violence and / or stories in which children are hurt or threatened.

Children over the age of thirteen are most likely to be frightened by realistic physical harm or threats, molestation or sexual assault and / or threats from aliens or the occult.

Despite the comic effect, some children over the age of eight could be concerned by the scene in which Drew is in the process of committing suicide.

Sexual references

The film contains one scene in which Drew and Claire kiss and move to the ground. Drew’s voiceover suggests that all they would do is kiss that night. The next scene shows them in the morning in Drew’s room. Claire is finishing getting dressed and Drew is asleep in bed. When Claire goes into the lobby, the all-weekend wedding party group give her a rousing cheer.

Nudity and sexual activity

There is no nudity or explicit sexual activity in this movie.

Use of substances

There are a few instances where alcohol is used, including:

• a work Christmas party is shown with people drinking alcohol
  similarly at Drew’s father’s Memorial service, guests are shown to drink alcohol, but no one is drunk
  
• the hotel where Drew stays is also the venue for an all weekend wedding party. In one scene, Drew attempts to steal a bottle of beer from the party and is caught by the intoxicated groom, Chuck. Chuck is a friendly drunk and the scene is depicted in a humorous manner.
  
• Claire gatecrashes the bride’s ‘hen party’ and when she later meets up with Drew, is shown to be a little intoxicated

Coarse language

There was occasional use of coarse language in this movie, including:

• shit
  
• fucking
  
• shit
  
• ass-kicking.

The movie's message

The main messages from the movie relate to not giving up after failure, no matter how great that may be, the importance of family and being a good parent.
Values parents may wish to encourage include:

• endurance through adversity,
  
• responsibility
  
• being supportive of your family
  
• liking and accepting people for being themselves.
  

This movie could give parents the opportunity to discuss with their children attitudes and behaviours, and their consequences, such as giving up after failure, and the inappropriateness of some of Samson’s behaviour (Drew’s cousin).