Elizabethtown

My expectations for Cameron Crowe’s new film Elizabethtown were probably too high. I was hoping for another Garden State or Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. What I got was a problem-filled piece that somehow manages to be respectable, even if it is far from great...

Elizabethtown is at its best during a series of vignettes spread throughout the movie. Bloom’s arrival in the town itself, his reunion with his extended family and later his final trek home are all fine pieces of filmmaking, touching for what they make the viewer see in him or herself. Bloom’s reunion with his extended family is a perfect representation of what it’s like for a loner urbanite to visit his bulging rural family, so that scene in particular was especially entertaining for me.

But enough of that touchy crap. Where’s my Captain McJudgy hat? Because it’s time to discuss The Problems.

Acting: It’s official. The jury has returned from deliberation and has a verdict. Orlando Bloom is incapable of leading a drama. He’s a fine supporting cast member and may be the perfect sidekick, but he has now been the lead in two big films and stunk them both up royally. The rest of the cast is passable but unextraordinary, with the exception of Judy Greer, who stole every scene she was in as Bloom’s sister.

Predictability: Suave urbanite goes to small town, meets someone, falls in love, does something to fuck it up, reunites with new lover, learns the importance of family and small town values. Haven’t we seen this about 50 times already? If you’re going to be so formulaic then you had damn well better do a brilliantly fantastic job of it.

Pacing: Maybe it’s just the combination of the first two problems, but this movie drags towards the end.

Characterization: All the characters, including the two leads, are thinly-veiled arch-types rather than well-developed people. Never in the whole length of the film did I care what happened to any of them.

Time travel: Either all the characters in this movie are so hopped up on drugs that they never sit down for 5 minutes or time travel is a reality in the Elizabethtown universe. We’re meant to believe that in the span of one night Kirsten Dunst’s character assembles a detailed minute-by-minute travel log, timed to music, of all the highways between Kentucky and Oregon based on her vast travel experience as a flight attendant. We’re also meant to believe that in the couple of days between a death and funeral Susan Sarandon’s character learns to cook, fix cars, expertly tap dance and get over her life-long problem with public speaking in time to deliver a knock out recital / stand-up routine. Sorry, no. Some readers will probably think I’m being too critical on this point, but if the movie is too unrealistic then I can’t relate to the characters and if I can’t relate to the characters then it fails as a drama.

Overall Elizabethtown is a perfectly sweet popcorn romance. Go into it expecting that and you will not be disappointed. It’s just no Garden State.

Tags: entertainment