Everyone is less mysterious than they think they are

This morning, I saw Elizabethtown. I've been looking forward to this movie for about two years, I guess. See, I love Almost Famous. I loved the original version that Cameron Crowe put out. It was a great film to me. Then I watched Untitled, the director's cut of AF. Most director's cuts add about 10-15 minutes to the film. Untitled was 40 minutes longer than Almost Famous. It was ten times better for me. Almost all of the extra footage added to the plot, the pacing was excellent, the film was a masterpiece. Crowe said that the studio wouldn't let him put out the nearly three-hour version in theaters, but DVD gave him a lot of extra freedom to do what he wanted with the film. The DVD set of Untitled (which was what Crowe originally wanted Almost Famous called, but the studio wouldn't let him do that either) includes both the AF original cut and the director's cut. I tried watching the theatrical version one day and couldn't. The film is so much richer because of those extra 40 minutes.
Anyway, so, I was looking forward to Elizabethtown. I didn't watch Vanilla Sky because the film looked a bit odd, I'm not a huge Tom Cruise fan, and it was based off of a Hispanic film, which meant that the majority of the film really wouldn't be from Crowe's heart and past, which is where AF and Say Anything were from. So, I skipped it. I watched the first trailer and was okay with it. Nothing great, but trailers are often formulaic and don't really get to the heart of the movie. I watched the internet trailer on apple.com and was really moved. I don't know if it was Elton John's song "My Father's Gun" that played over the majority of the trailer (which featured very little dialogue, as the dialogue was mostly muted while the song played, which was kind of odd) or just what I could derive from the scenes from expressions and not dialogue, but it was simply great.
I watched everything that came out about the movie. Trailers, the internet trailer, even the music selection trailer on Apple's site. I devoured it all. I was expecting a really good movie.
So, I went to the first screening today. I went a little late because last time I'd gone to a movie at that time of day on a Friday, the theater had been practically empty (of course, that's when I went to see Serenity, so there you go). The place was packed. I went into the theater and it was almost full. See, I live near Elizabethtown, so a lot of people wanted to see the movie because it's based in a city near where they live (not why I was there). Then I remembered that it's Fall Break time for the kids around here, so a lot of youth groups were there (heh, they said "fuck" twice in the movie and I heard a lot of gasps. I loved that). I found a seat that was a single, next to the handicapped area at the back. That was nice.
Until a manager came in and said that there was a woman there with her handicapped daughter and they wanted to sit together. I was having a nice day and said I'd move. I got up and looked around. I don't like to sit next to strangers in a theater. I'm not wild about sitting next to anyone in the theater unless I'm close to them in some way (really good friend, hot girl, etc.). So, the only seats that worked into that criteria were in the front row. Alright, fine, how bad could it be to sit in the front row?
I basically had to scootch down as far as possible to see the entire screen. Shit. This movie had better be fucking good. Fucking youth groups and fucking old people taking up all the fucking seats. It'd better be fucking good.
It was.
It was so damn good.
It was the best movie I've seen this year. I love Star Wars and really liked Episode 3. This was better. Critics fell all over themselves for Batman Begins and Serenity. I thought they were both mediocre. I liked Wedding Crashers and The 40-Year-Old Virgin. A History of Violence was good. War of the Worlds and Mr. & Mrs. Smith were okay, but forgettable. Sin City was gritty and harsh, but good. Saraha wasn't as bad as I expected, but wasn't all that good.
But Elizabethtown was abso-fucking-lutely great. It easily was better than all of those movies from the past 10 months. I can't even recall a movie from 2004 that was that good.
I hate Orlando Bloom. He was really good in this, even great at times.
I used to dislike Kirsten Dunst. Something changed that about 6 months ago and I can't put my finger on it why. In this, she was really good (the Southern accent that they tried to work in for her was the only nitpick I had, and I'm not sure if it grated on me for a specific reason or if it was just that I'm used to her normal accent that she uses in every other movie I've seen her in).
The soundtrack was great and I'm thinking about heading to Wal-Mart to buy it right now. In fact, I think I will. Meh, probably not. I don't know.
I was worried it would be Garden State all over again. It's not. It's better than Garden State, and I really liked Garden State.
It made me realize things about myself that scare the hell out of me. I'm not ready for my father to die. I fear that I really don't know him that well. I worry about what my mother might be like after my father dies. I fear that I might fail at my chosen profession and have lost five years of my life when I could have done something else. I then wonder what I'd do after I failed. I saw myself in Bloom's shoes and I wonder if my dark appointment with destiny is coming, too.
I'll admit, there wasn't a lot of hilarious dialogue that I could endlessly quote. There little bits of the score were very reminiscent of the AF score. There's set-up for a sub-plot or two that you see scenes of in the trailer but are missing from the film. To me, it doesn't matter.
Critics are trying to rip this a new one. I haven't agreed with critics much this year (look up the review for Batman or Serenity and see how close they are to mine). I love this movie. I was seriously considering sneaking out at the end and then back in before the next showing to see it again, but the next showing had people lined up waiting once we got out of our showing. It was a little ridiculous.
I want this movie. If there'd been a stand outside the theater offering a DVD of the movie (as some studios have considered doing), I'd buy it in a heartbeat. Money is tight now, and I'd still do it.
Don't let my opinion buff up your expectations of the film, though. This film meant a lot to me because of how it related to my life and how I saw the film (figuratively, not literally, but I was pleasantly surprised that I didn't have a crick in my neck at the end). Nearly every part of this film worked for me, and at the end I was satisfied. I walked out of the theater without a real complaint. I just wish I could see more movies like this.