We have all gone through trials and tribulations in life, and Elizabethtown portrays how one man deals with life.

Elizabethtown tells the story of Drew Baylor, played by Orlando Bloom, and his problems with failure. At the start, Drew, who works as a designer for an Oregon shoe company, is called into Phil DeVoss’ (Alec Baldwin) office, and Phil tells him he is fired for making a huge product design mistake, which lost the company $1 billion. Soon after, Drew’s girlfriend, Ellen (Jessica Biel), dumps him. On the verge of suicide, Drew receives a call from his sister Heather (Judy Greer), who tells him their father, Mitch, died of a heart attack.

His mother, Hollie (Susan Sarandon), sends Drew to Elizabethtown, Ky., Mitch’s hometown, to take care of the funeral arrangements and to meet his father’s side of the family. While on the plane, he runs into a quirky, upbeat flight attendant, Claire Colburn (Kirsten Dunst), who winds up helping Drew through the hard times. In Elizabethtown, he learns about the roots of his family. Drew also keeps running into Claire, and she gives him a special map in the end, which would take him, along with an urn of his father’s ashes, across the states on a road trip of his life.

Elizabethtown, in a sense, is a coming-of-age story of a man who overcomes the hardships of letting a company down and losing his father. Known for doing movies like The Lord of the Rings and Pirates of the Caribbean, Bloom trades his swords and bows for an American accent and some modern clothing.

In this movie, Bloom shows more facial expressions and has more dialogue than he did in all The Lord of the Rings movies combined. Taking a step into the great movie genre we like to call the “chick flick,” his performance was amazing. He came out of his box and was able to show more.

For Dunst, she traded in her cheerleader-like act for a southern dialect. Her character was fun loving, but somewhat annoying. The only thing she did in the entire movie was talk, which was characteristic of her character.

Claire helped Drew carry on in life. For both characters, they were believable in the sense you could relate to them.

As one of his visions, director Cameron Crowe used music to complement the storyline. On the Elizabethtown Web site, Crowe said he used the music to write each of the scenes in the movie. He would also come to the set and play the song that went with that specific scene to help the actors prepare.

Crowe also used the music in each scene during Drew’s road trip. For example, Claire includes CDs with the special map he had to play during the trip. Stopping at the various locations marked on the map, Claire told him to do specific jobs to the music included. Drew had to stop in a field, do a dance and with one hand raised in the air. The music helped Drew through his life problems. At some of the locations, he spread his father’s ashes.

All of the music for the movie describes the southern feel of Kentucky. It also sets up the emotion of the storyline.

The soundtrack includes Elton John, Tom Petty and Nancy Wilson, Crowe’s wife. It’s a wonderful CD to listen to if you decide to go on a road trip.

I encourage everyone to go see this movie and pick up the soundtrack. It is a great story of life and love, and for those who love Bloom or Dunst, it’s a wonderful movie to see them in. And remember, 60B.