You know, the more I think about it, the more indignant I feel at the way most critics have treated Elizabethtown. I'm usually quite forgiving of these guys, and I know that there's nothing worse than dismissing a bunch of movie critics—who are, for the most part, decent, passionate people—just because you happen to disagree with them. But sometimes, well, they just smell blood in the water, and pummel a interesting movie because it would be too much trouble to defend. (The classic example is Gigli, a flawed but reasonably likeable movie that is nowhere near as bad as anyone suggests.)

Elizabethtown is no Gigli, but it did have a disastrous premiere at the Toronto Film Festival, and maybe a lot of critics were fed up with Cameron Crowe and his mix tape soundtracks and repeated attempts to insert catchphrases into the popular consciousness. Fair enough. But a lot of critics are treating this movie as a career-ender, and if Elizabethtown is any indication, this is not a career that deserves to end. Maybe it's a failure, or even a fiasco, but it's a beautiful one.