During a hometown memorial for his Kentucky-born father, a young man begins an unexpected romance with a too-good-to-be-true stewardess.
Critics ripped Cameron Crowe’s road-trip-rom-com-drama “Elizabethtown” to shreds upon its release over 15 years ago. Up until that point, it had seemed like the filmmaker could do no wrong: “Fast Times at Ridgemont High,” “Say Anything,” “Singles,” “Jerry Maguire,” “Almost Famous” … Okay, so there was the critically-reviled sci-fi head trip “Vanilla Sky,” yet despite the flak he received for that dreamlike dissection of humanity, the film steadily gained a cult following, and represents a noteworthy detour in his otherwise predictable career. “Elizabethtown,” on the other hand, represents a stumbling block, from which he’s arguably never recovered (“We Bought a Zoo” or “Aloha” were hardly comebacks).
Does it hold up? Has it perhaps gained resonance over the years? Or is it still the train wreck we remember? The answer is: none of the above. Crowe crams his meandering narrative with scenes both turgid and near-perfect, performances that range from sublime to scenery-chewing. It functions much more effectively as an “almost love story” than a cinematic soliloquy about the loss of your parents. It’s as difficult to loathe as it is to love, in other words. It sort of just sits there, wide-eyed and earnest and confused about its purpose.
Drew’s (Orlando Bloom) life seems to have shattered into a thousand pieces. His professional career goes down in flames, his father passes away, and, perhaps worst of all, he’s dumped by his girlfriend Ellen (Jessica Biel). Drew can’t even commit suicide properly (no, seriously, what’s up with that “Saw”-like contraption?). His eccentric mother Hollie (Susan Sarandon) and sister Heather (Judy Greer) send him on a quest to Elizabethtown, Kentucky, to bring his father’s body home for cremation. En route, he meets the perky — and quite needy, if you ask me — flight attendant, Claire (Kristen Dunst). I’ll let you discover whether they fall for each other and whether Drew ends up bringing his father home, or letting the good citizens of Elizabethtown bury the man.
The film takes a long time to get going. Drew reconnects with his roots in the titular town for what seems like forever. Crowe is a sap (“Jerry Maguire”’s “you had me at hello” has long since become a coined phrase), and “Elizabethtown” is chock-full of obvious, heart on the sleeve sentiments. A lot of them feel forced, like the scene where Drew reads out a wedding toast to Claire in a smarmy/milquetoast attempt to woo her (it works), or THAT Susan Sarandon funeral speech (“Boner Bob, my neighbor!”), followed by a cringe-inducing tap-dancing sequence. Bless the great actress, but Hollie and Heather’s subplot could’ve been eliminated altogether — it spurts and stalls and is generally off-putting.
But then there are genuinely superb moments. I love Drew and Claire’s extended phone conversation (“We peaked on the phone”). The extended finale is beautifully composed as well, Drew embarking on a musical road trip designed by Claire. “You have five minutes to wallow in your misery,” he’s advised at one point. “Discard it, and proceed.” (If only it were that easy.) If you really think about it, there’s something disturbing, if not sinister, behind the implications of Claire putting in hours and hours into a musical collage book for a person she barely knows… But who wants to really think, when the sequence is this well-orchestrated?
Orlando Bloom glides through the film, his performance bland — but so is pretty much every Orlando Bloom performance, the actor coasting on his good looks and charm, but rarely giving any nuance or depth. He struggles with his English accent, too, which by itself warrants a look-see. Thank God for Kirsten Dunst, who adds much-needed spice to the proceedings. Her Claire may be a bit too insistent and angelic, but the actress is radiant. An 80-minute film focused solely on Drew and Hollie would have most likely worked much better.
Drew talks about the difference between a “failure” and a “fiasco.” “Elizabethtown” is neither, but it does mark the moment when Crowe seemed to have lost his groove. Not the musical kind, mind you — the soundtrack couldn’t be groovier — but the more crucial, cinematic kind. To sum it up: it’s markedly better than Crowe’s feature films that followed but infinitely worse than the ones preceding it.
Available on Paramount Presents Blu-ray for the first time February 9th
