(Cameron Crowe / USA / 2005 / 123 min / 35mm / cert 12A)
(Mon-Thurs 2nd-5th / 7pm / £2)

After causing the Oregon shoe company he works for to lose hundreds of millions of dollars, Drew Baylor (Orlando Bloom) is fired for his mistake, and promptly also dumped by his girlfriend, Ellen. On the verge of suicide, Drew is oddly given a new purpose in life when he is brought back to his family's small Kentucky hometown of Elizabethtown following the death of his father, Mitch, as it falls to him to make sure that his dying wishes are fulfilled. On the way home, Drew meets a flight attendant, Claire Colburn (Kirsten Dunst), with whom he falls in love, in a romance that helps his life get back on track...
Following in the footsteps of his film hero Billy WIlder, Crowe has created that rare thing: a feelgood romantic road-movie that seeks to provide a valid critical anaylsis of the pressures of modern life as well as tug at the heartstrings. Crowe's approach to topics such as death, suicide and failure - amongst other things - is light and fresh, and like the finest of American cinema, looks upon the darker aspects of modern life with a positive, but not unflinching, eye.