Elizabethtown - movie review

I recently read the Fametracker Fame Audit for Cameron Crowe and was disappointed to see his films criticized cause, frankly, I've always been a Crowe fan. But then I went to see Elizabethtown (that I had been waiting for!) and it all fell apart. Elizabethtown is a mess.

It's hard to pinpoint exactly where the film suffers most. It never feels pulled together in any solid way, and because of its haphazzard structure, there is no emotional pull. And a lack of emotion in a film about relationships, loss, and overcoming failure is not a good thing. It's easy to see what Crowe wants you to feel and there is an obvious father-son motif being pushed but it feels empty all the same. Scenes, that are evocative in isolation, are hobbled together into a clashy patchwork of life moments. Now, this is nothing new for Crowe. His ability to capture such "moments" is one of the things I love about him; but this time around his seams are flawed.

My other issue with the film is the casting of Kirsten Dunst. As a character that can only be described as ODD (lest stalker be used instead!), she is completely unreal. There is nothing about Dunst that makes her magnetic or intriguing in this role and I couldn't help but wonder what Bloom's Drew was drawn to in the end. The almost-romance is frustrating and forced and the chemistry is non-existent. Dunst may be looking to save the drowning Drew but you never really understand WHY she likes this guy so much and because of that, its hard to buy her interest in the early stages. Then again, her interest is so intense as to be almost creepy sometimes.

And then there is Bloom. My interest in seeing this flick was sparked by one moment in the trailer when he offers a look that sticks with me today. Sadly, that moment isn't in the final cut of the film and with its absence, so too is the soul of Drew's character. He floats through the picture as if the activities have nothing to do with him. He is so detached for so long that by the time his crisis release arrives you hardly care anymore. This is a shame, because Bloom does a great job of giving us angry-sadness.

The film has some strong points -those "moments" I mentioned but even they seem cut from the cloth of Crowe's previous work. An all-night phone conversation between Dunst and Bloom smacks of the Cruise/Cruz affair in Vanilla Sky. The film's opening monologue and mentor introduction is all Jerry MacGuire. And Dunst's voice over for the (crammmed in and incongruent) road trip feels all too Penny Lane. Even Crowe's usual panache for using music effectively falls short here and becomes as contrived as the story he is trying to tell.

The one bright spot is Judy Greer - who in three small scenes manages to capture true emotion. If more of the players in Elizabethtown took cues from her, maybe it would have been a place worth the visit.