Meade County, near Brandenburg. Filming also took place in Scottsbluff, Nebraska; Eureka Springs, Arkansas; Memphis, Tennessee; and Oklahoma City. In the original cut of the film shown at the Toronto International Film Festival, an epilogue reveals that the flaw in the shoe designed by Drew, that it whistles while walking, turns out to be a hit with consumers. This was cut from the release version of the film to prevent the ending from seeming overly drawn-out. Joni Mitchell's painting Hyde Park appears in the film. One of her paintings had previously appeared in Crowe's Vanilla Sky (2001). Themes On a second viewing of the movie, Roger Ebert makes the observation that the film is really a hidden story of an angel who has fallen from grace. Claire, the angel, is met in the heavens (the empty plane) and has decided to guide Drew through his depression, suicidal thoughts and redeem himself from failure. Character names, the corporation, etc. were found to be allusions to Hell, The Bible, sin and the devil. Drew has to redeem and cleanse himself from working with the devil. Claire also needs to make the choice to remain on Earth at the end. The movie is thought to take various cues from the films It's a Wonderful Life (1946), City of Angels (1998), and Dogma (1999). Release Critical reception Elizabethtown received mostly negative reviews from critics. Rotten Tomatoes gives the film a 28% approval rating based on 177 reviews, with an average score of 4.7/10. The site's consensus is "this story of a floundering shoe designer who returns home for a family tragedy gets lost in undeveloped plot lines and lackluster performances." It holds a Metacritic score of 45 out of 100 from 37 critics. Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B" on an A+ to F scale. Film critic Roger Ebert gave the film a positive review with three stars out of four. He describes the story as the most unrelenting "Meet Cute" in movie history. He went on to say "the film is nowhere near one of Crowe's great films (like Almost Famous), but it is sweet and good-hearted and has some real laughs." Ebert later reprinted on his site an analysis of the film pointing out various plot elements supporting the idea that Claire is actually an angel. In his review, Nathan Rabin of The A.V. Club created