Movie Musings: Elvis & Anabelle

Title: Elvis & Anabelle
Rated: PG-13
Director: Will Geiger
Run Time: 103 minutes
Actors: Max Minghella, Blake Lively, Joe Mantegna, Keith Carradine, and Mary Steenburgen


Description from Amazon: A small-town beauty queen and an unlicensed mortician set out across the Texas plains on a journey of self-discovery in director Will Geiger's meditative road movie. Annabelle has never known what life is like outside the fiercely competitive world of beauty pageants; her mother's constant demands of physical perfection a never-ending stream of acute, soul-crushing criticism. Elvis doesn't have his mortician's license, but that doesn't stop his eccentric father from putting him to work in the family mortuary. When the sting of her mother's words becomes too painful to endure, Annabelle flees to the town mortuary knowing that is the last place her mother would come looking for her. When Elvis discovers the beautiful Annabelle cowering among the corpses, he sweeps her away on an impromptu road trip so that the pair may free themselves from their daily drudgery long enough to discover their own identities and realize what they really want out of life.

My Musings: When I first saw this movie title I instantly thought please let it not be about THE ELVIS. Luckily for me it isn't. Technically this movie isn't contemporary, but I'm pretending it is. Elvis & Anabelle takes place roughly in the 1950s, but he time isn't key to the story. The dress of the characters even threw me off at times because some of the outfits are what people wear now. Due to the "something" that happens in the beginning of the story I really questioned if this was a supernatural movie until the very end. I have no idea why, I just kept waiting for it to kick in. The fact that I was slightly confused through the whole movie is the only "real problem" I had with the show.
     Now that that is taken care of let's get onto the rest of the show. Elvis is mildly attractive, sort of poor, and strange bordering on weird. He keeps a photo book of the dead people that pass through the mortuary. That's all I have to say. His polar opposite is Anabelle who is played by the beautiful Blake Lively. She is your all American beauty queen; gorgeous, well off, and beloved by the town. These two seemingly opposite people are bound together by their deep sense of familial obligations and pressure. The formula for the movie was pretty predictable until the end. The end was awesome and had me on my seat, nervous, and fingers crossed. This wasn't my favorite movie, but it was good. After watching this my sister watched this movie about twice a week for the next month! So, it's all a matter of taste. If you are looking for a slightly dark, weird, quirky romance give Elvis & Anabelle a chance.  I would give this movie a 3 out of 4 STARs rating.

* This post is part of the Topic of the Month: June Contemporary feature. If you are interested check out the giveaway page for a giveaway of a box of contemporary books.