Tooth and Claw

Ahhhh, the untended blog. I almost left this blog for dead, but somehow having a blog in a not-so-popular site amidst all the other blog-dedicated websites in cyberspace gives you an artificial sense of privacy. There are blogs made to  entertain, some to impress, and some just to vent out the ramblings of an over-caffeinated mind at 2 am. Ramblings meant for oneself, but somehow needing to be heard by somebody else and no one in particular.

It’s been two nights since I watched Elizabethtown just before going to sleep, and I can’t help thinking about it before going to sleep every night since. I didn’t catch the beginning, or even remember if it was on HBO or Star Movies, but I decided to stop and watch for a few minutes when I saw Jessica Biel just as I was channel surfing through the network. It turned out that it was an Orlando Bloom movie but I was hooked to the plot before I could change channels.

    What transpired for the next hour-and-a-half was a strangely nice story about a guy on the verge of suicide whose plan was serendipitously interrupted by a call from his sister that his father had died and he had to go down to his dad’s hometown to facilitate the funeral. Along the way he met Kirsten Dunst, an intrusively sociable stewardess on the plane, but whose interestingness grows on you. But as you’d expect from a guy who has his mind set on his death, Bloom goes on his way to Elizabethtown giving no apparent interest on, excuse the political incorrectness, “a clearly hittable chick”.

He soon finds himself in a small town where he comes across a number of colorful characters from a has-been rocker and his run-amok kid, traditionalist old-timers, and a sappy groom-to-be who does that you’re-the-man pointy thingy every time they’d run across each other on the hotel. Well this Bloom fellow gets a bit lonely on his first night and ends up calling Dunst, who engages him on a conversation-ala- Before-Sunset until they at last agree to meet just around the crack of dawn for an “eyeball”.

The rest of the movie is as you’d expect it to be – some romantic developments against the backdrop of the whole small-town charm, culminating in a funeral party with a heartwarming tap dance by Susan Sarandon and a totally rockin’ rendition of Freebird which sets the party ablaze - triggering a fantastic electric guitar finale with sprinklers a-sprinklin’.

I wouldn’t want to ruin it for those who haven’t seen it yet, so I’ll have to stop the storytelling here. Pretty typical, I know. But the perfect combination of richly-developed characters, an exceptional script, and a soundtrack that stirs your inner free-spirit wells up to an insightfully fascinating movie that kept me reflecting on its intricate simplicity, and why I inexplicably liked it a lot.

Ramblings, like I said. It wouldn’t be ramblings if I made much sense now wouldn’t it? Sleep is knocking on my eyelids and this blog had served its purpose…