Elizabethtown

Lately you’ve got to wonder what Orlando Bloom’s performance would be
like without a sword, bow or an automatic rifle in his hands. Forget
the green screens and the computer generated armies and pirates. Lose
the body armor and what do you have left? Bloom stars in a tale of
failure and trying to learn how to deal with it in Cameron Crowe’s
Elizabethtown.

Etown is 2 parts finding yourself, 1 part learning your roots, 1 part
dealing with life and just a hint of the great American road trip.
Bloom plays Drew Baylor, a shoe designer who has one hell of a bad day.
First causing his company to lose nearly a billion dollars, getting
fired, getting dumped and being just seconds from comitting a
spectacularly creative suicide, Drew receives a phone call from his
sister (Judy Greer). “Dad died and mom’s lost it. You have to be the
responsible one and go get him.” The plan is to fly from Oregon to
Elizabethtown, Kentucky to make sure his father’s wishes are seen to
(cremation), bring his father back home to his mother and get back to
his apartment to close out his own life.

On the flight to
Kentucky, Drew reluctantly meets Claire (Kirsten Dunst), a flight
attendant who can’t help to spread her boundless energy to her
passengers. She sneaks her cell phone number onto an impromptu road map
she draws for him and after arriving to a deluge of barely recognizable
relatives and friends in a po-dunk town, Drew calls her not really
knowing what to say. Their 5 hour conversation turns into a romantic
non-romance that helps Drew realize that failure isn’t so bad, no
matter how spectacular it turns out to be.

It’s hard to
classify a movie like this. It’s a drama with comedy timing that isn’t
dripping with romance. The comedy stems from the mix of small town
Kentucky characters and their small town ways, something clearly new to
Drew, who didn’t really know his dad, but gets pieces from those who
knew him best. I expect the women in the audience will need a tissue
from time to time, but there is enough humor to balance it out.

Completing the film is a road trip sequence across the heartland of
America as Drew journeys home contemplating his own life and
accomplishments. I can’t see Elizabethtown as a big award winner. Bloom
gives a great performance, tear jerking at times, but Dunst stumbles
over her southern accent, eventually losing it completely by the end of
the movie. Susan Sarandon plays a wonderfully frantic widower whose
character could have been explored a bit more for the laughs and
Jessica Biel’s presence is all but invisible; she could have phoned it
in.

As a whole though, Elizabethtown is great entertainment,
kind of like comfort food for the eyes. This is a film doomed to have
split criticisms, though I can recommend it as a heartwarming, funny
flic with a message that isn’t crammed down your gullet.