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Elizabethtown
CLIP IN
00:31:47
CLIP OUT
00:37:03

SUMMARY

Later, at the home of Uncle Dale and Aunt Dora, Elizabethtownies have gathered for a joyous celebration of Mitch Baylor's life and death. Drew navigates a sea of mourners excitedly clamoring for a chance to greet and banter with him. Aunt Dora takes Drew upstairs for a tour of his family tree, as depicted in an impressive mosaic of framed photographs lining the walls. Aunt Dora shares the last photo taken of Mitch before he died, as well as taking a moment to casually malign Drew's mother.

The rest of the house is a hive of activity, with children frolicking, plump women tending to stoves, and old men sleeping in armchairs. The bounty of food includes an enormous glazed ham, which Jessie's young son Samson mischievously hurls to the dogs, to the horror of townspeople and family members alike. Samson continues acting out with such stunts as: random ear-piercing shrieks, stuffing cake in his mouth while wearing a cape, and attempting to drive a car.

Eventually, the ruckus of this soiree/wake (soirake?) is interrupted by the arrival of one Bill Banyan, a loud-mouthed neighbor who cracks up the crowd by pretending to be offended at not being invited.

ANALYSIS

Utilizing the latest in DrewCam! technology, the viewer is invited to walk a mile in Drew Baylor's shoes. Fortunately, much less than a mile is needed to establish that although Elizabethtown's no-longer-resident saint is lying in a box at the funeral home, the true landmark event taking place for these townspeople is the return of "grown-up Drew Baylor."

WARNING: Audiences are to review this POV shot at their own risk, as identifying this closely with Drew may result in an increased amount of undeserved adulation and/or a gradual, overall dumbening much like that experienced by Charlie in Flowers For Algernon.

It is during this sequence that we are introduced to Connie, Mitch's first girlfriend; Charlie, a young admirer of Drew's work; and countless other individuals who gasp and cling to Drew as if they had not just received his awkward condolences at the funeral home. The blatant discord between the townspeople's poker-faced silence and the Lynchian revision we see here raises the possibility that Elizabethtown is nothing more than a large outdoor playground for the clinically insane; indeed, the unsettling jollity on display here suggests that the whole town may have conspired to kill Mitch just so they could have a party.

Through it all, Drew maintains utter passivity, offering no visible reaction to the him-centered commotion abound. Even when Aunt Dora leads Drew to an upstairs chamber containing photographs and artifacts from his father's life in Elizabethtown, Drew's behavior seems consistent with that of a narcoleptic who has painted eyeballs on his eyelids. On the other hand, Drew's conflicted sense of belonging to his own family tree would certainly be understandable considering the underwhelming nature of the Baylors and Connellys, beginning with a man named Dickie whom Aunt Dora describes as "an alcoholic. He had a drinking problem. And he also had three nipples."

This clip contains our first introduction to Samson, Jessie's son who is clearly up to no good, as noted by Jessie with the line, "That's Samson, my son, clearly up to no good." In case of any leftover ambiguity regarding Samson's character, we cut to a shot of the young boy standing with his arms crossed, clearly a body language major from the Dennis the Menace Institute of Authority Subversion. Noticeably absent is an actual graphic of the scale denoting Samson as a "scamp" on a scale of "handful" to "rascal."

Samson's behavior in this clip is crucial in setting up Jessie as the irresponsible father, the topic of which must be addressed with speed and cogency, considering how quickly the entire subplot ia subsequently abandoned. Samson's behavior is virtually unrecognizable as boyish hijinks, particularly the scene in which he backs a car out of the driveway. While it is possible that Samson was compelled to look for 60B, perhaps he was only trying to flee the endless, overlapping gab of "ruzzah ruzzah," "peas and carrots," and "elephant shoes" echoing through the house.


MEMORABLE SCREENCAPS
This introduction of Aunt Dora brought to you by David Lynch.
"Uncle Mitch always wanted us to meet. Everybody says we look alike. Weird, huh? It's like looking in a mirror."*
*actual line from the movie
ANIMATED GIF
Cameron Crowe's guide to comedy (0.2 MB)
MINUTES OF ELIZABETHTOWN SPENT IN ELIZABETHTOWN
11:55

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