Jamie passion and passionfruit!

On a cold depressing weekend, this film was the right tonic.  At first, life seems a disaster for Drew Baylor, intelligently played by Orlando Bloom.  He is ridiculed at work and sacked by slimy boss, Phil (Alec Baldwin)  for losing the company millions.  Then his girlfriend dumps him and then his dad dies.  He is deputed by mum to bring the ashes back from dad’s hometown in Elizabethtown, Kentucky where dad`s famly live – one of those rambling eccentric families with all the noble values that city slickers have now lost.  They want a burial, his mum (Susan Sarandon) wants a cremation.  In his confusion and discovery, up pops Claire, one of those off-beat air hostesses that rarely exist in reality – I have met maybe two in 20 years of travel - who gives him a chance to philosophise, grieve, take a new perspective on life and find himself – falling in love on the way.  Cameron Crowe has written a witty script which is fresh and charming even if a little far fetched.  Orlando Bloom is a calm and interesting central figure.  Kirsten Dunst can do slightly wacko and very attractive down to a tee, Susan Sarandon has a great scene towards the end of the movie.  Not a masterpiece but thoroughly enjoyable.

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