ElizabethtownDirected by Cameron Crowe
starring
Orlando Bloom
Kirsten Dunst
Susan Sarandon
Having taken a four year coffee break since bringing Vanilla Sky to the big screen, Cameron Crowe awakens from his slumber to bring us Elizabethtown. It took him five years to bring Jerry Maguire to the screen, so at least his work output is increasing. As I always say, if you’re going to make something you ought to be sure you’re making it right, and if it takes you four or five years to get from initial concept to perfection, then so be it. However, if it takes you that long to make a film and it turns out to be crap, don’t let it eat at you too much that you spent so much time making doo-doo. The truth is, Elizabethtown isn’t crap, but the product that Crowe ended up with is a long way from perfection. He obviously had a lot of ideas. I’d say about ten too many for this film.
The premise of the film is this. Drew Baylor (Orlando Bloom) designs what is suppose to be the world’s first perfect tennis shoe for his company. He has spent the past seven or eight years of his life designing the shoe that’s like “walking on a cloud”. The shoe flops big time causing the company he works for to lose almost a billion dollars. Drew decides to commit suicide, but as he rigs up his exercise bike in one of the strangest ideas for attempted suicide I’ve ever seen, the phone rings. It is his sister telling him that their father has died in Elizabethtown, Kentucky and it is up to Drew to fly there and take care of funeral arrangements. Drew temporarily postpones his suicide attempt and hops on a plane where he meets stewardess Claire Coburn (Kirsten Dunst) who strikes up a conversation and in all likelihood a possible relationship. And from that point on were not sure if we’re watching a quirky romantic comedy, the tragic story of one’s life, or an extended version of the long forgotten television show Evening Shade.
Once in Elizabethtown, Drew spends a lot of time meeting the lifelong friends of his father who seem to have recently stepped out of a Norman Rockwell painting. And Drew’s father had a lot of friends. We get to meet each and every one of them just as Jack does. It is all very sentimental and heartwarming, but in the end it is no different than being asked by your girlfriend’s mother to have a look at the family photograph album. You see pictures of all the cousins, aunts, uncles, grandparents, great-grandparents, and friends, but afterwards you still really don’t know anything about them. Worse yet, they don’t tell us enough about Drew’s father so that by the end of the film, we’re still kind of in the dark and clueless about him too.
But maybe all of that is a side journey for what the film is really about. Drew hooks back up with Claire and an unconventional non-romance begins between the two of them. They start their non-relationship by spending a whole evening talking to each other on the phone. And by the time they meet and hang up, you’ll feel like it’s been longer than that.
If Crowe had made a nice hour and forty minute film concentrating on the relationship between Claire and Drew, it may have been a good film. But there are so many needless side trips that don’t amount to anything, and most of these scenes are nothing more than setups for the "big funeral scene". For instance, Drew spends a lot of time with his cousin Jessie (Paul Schneider), and there is a lot of talk about how Jessie’s band once played on the same bill as Lynyrd Skynyrd, and I guess we’re supposed to see him as sad and pathetic. As it turns out though, it is nothing more than a set up for later events at the funeral. Much of the same can be said for Drew’s mother Hollie (Susan Sarandon.) We see her in bits and pieces until she too lands in Elizabethtown for her husband’s funeral and to give us the reason why she actually is in the film at all. And although it’s a funny bit, it’s not much of a payoff for such a long setup.
I liked Orlando Bloom more in this film than any other I’ve seen him in except Pirates of the Caribbean. In that film, he was sort of Abbot to Johnny Depp’s Costello. His scenes with Claire are fun to watch for the most part, but again it’s Kirsten Dunst who carries them and makes a lot of the film worth watching. It just seems to me that Bloom does better in films when he has a strong character to play off of. Whether or not he will ever be able to truly carry a film on his own, still remains unanswered.
During the last twenty minutes or so, after being urged on by Claire who has given him full instructions on how to enjoy himself, Drew goes on a road trip. It is only then that the film starts to come alive and it is the film's one bright shining moment. Unfortunately, you will be awfully tempted to hit the road yourself and return the DVD to the video store long before Drew ever does. I was tempted to but somehow managed to stick it out to the bitter end. But the fact that I was tempted means I have no choice but to give you a grade of C-.
The premise of the film is this. Drew Baylor (Orlando Bloom) designs what is suppose to be the world’s first perfect tennis shoe for his company. He has spent the past seven or eight years of his life designing the shoe that’s like “walking on a cloud”. The shoe flops big time causing the company he works for to lose almost a billion dollars. Drew decides to commit suicide, but as he rigs up his exercise bike in one of the strangest ideas for attempted suicide I’ve ever seen, the phone rings. It is his sister telling him that their father has died in Elizabethtown, Kentucky and it is up to Drew to fly there and take care of funeral arrangements. Drew temporarily postpones his suicide attempt and hops on a plane where he meets stewardess Claire Coburn (Kirsten Dunst) who strikes up a conversation and in all likelihood a possible relationship. And from that point on were not sure if we’re watching a quirky romantic comedy, the tragic story of one’s life, or an extended version of the long forgotten television show Evening Shade.
Once in Elizabethtown, Drew spends a lot of time meeting the lifelong friends of his father who seem to have recently stepped out of a Norman Rockwell painting. And Drew’s father had a lot of friends. We get to meet each and every one of them just as Jack does. It is all very sentimental and heartwarming, but in the end it is no different than being asked by your girlfriend’s mother to have a look at the family photograph album. You see pictures of all the cousins, aunts, uncles, grandparents, great-grandparents, and friends, but afterwards you still really don’t know anything about them. Worse yet, they don’t tell us enough about Drew’s father so that by the end of the film, we’re still kind of in the dark and clueless about him too.
But maybe all of that is a side journey for what the film is really about. Drew hooks back up with Claire and an unconventional non-romance begins between the two of them. They start their non-relationship by spending a whole evening talking to each other on the phone. And by the time they meet and hang up, you’ll feel like it’s been longer than that.
If Crowe had made a nice hour and forty minute film concentrating on the relationship between Claire and Drew, it may have been a good film. But there are so many needless side trips that don’t amount to anything, and most of these scenes are nothing more than setups for the "big funeral scene". For instance, Drew spends a lot of time with his cousin Jessie (Paul Schneider), and there is a lot of talk about how Jessie’s band once played on the same bill as Lynyrd Skynyrd, and I guess we’re supposed to see him as sad and pathetic. As it turns out though, it is nothing more than a set up for later events at the funeral. Much of the same can be said for Drew’s mother Hollie (Susan Sarandon.) We see her in bits and pieces until she too lands in Elizabethtown for her husband’s funeral and to give us the reason why she actually is in the film at all. And although it’s a funny bit, it’s not much of a payoff for such a long setup.
I liked Orlando Bloom more in this film than any other I’ve seen him in except Pirates of the Caribbean. In that film, he was sort of Abbot to Johnny Depp’s Costello. His scenes with Claire are fun to watch for the most part, but again it’s Kirsten Dunst who carries them and makes a lot of the film worth watching. It just seems to me that Bloom does better in films when he has a strong character to play off of. Whether or not he will ever be able to truly carry a film on his own, still remains unanswered.
During the last twenty minutes or so, after being urged on by Claire who has given him full instructions on how to enjoy himself, Drew goes on a road trip. It is only then that the film starts to come alive and it is the film's one bright shining moment. Unfortunately, you will be awfully tempted to hit the road yourself and return the DVD to the video store long before Drew ever does. I was tempted to but somehow managed to stick it out to the bitter end. But the fact that I was tempted means I have no choice but to give you a grade of C-.
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