If you liked "Garden State," you'll loathe "Elizabethtown."
In both films, the twenty-something characters find themselves at a loss in life, return to their hometowns, stumble upon love, and miraculously find their way again. Where "Garden State" succeeds in its message about the uncertainty of life, however, "Elizabethtown" fails to convince us of anything and, ultimately, leaves us asking the same question the protagonist lamely answers: "What's the point?"
After costing his company nearly $1 billion with the failure of a new sneaker design, Drew Baylor (Orlando Bloom) is literally ready to kill himself. But it's his father's death that saves Drew's life when he's called back home to plan the burial. On the plane, he meets Claire (Kirsten Dunst), and his whole value system changes.
The contrast between Drew's life and the one his father led reveals to the audience what Drew will finally learn: that father really does know best. Instead of an absentee father in the Baylor household, it was the son who chose work over family. Drew's job, before he lost it, was to assign meaning to a shoe. His boss (Alec Baldwin) muses, "It could've saved the planet," referring to the botched sneaker design. This is what Drew traded his family for?
Most of the film's big names live up to the compelling story. Susan Sarandon, as Drew's mom, is brilliant in her handful of scenes. Bloom's Drew is moving, a complex map of emotions running across his face at the thought of dead dad.
But Kirsten Dunst's manic Claire is identical to her Lizzie from "Wimbledon" (2004), and for that matter every other character she's ever played. Except in this case she has a muddled Southern accent.
As for the film itself, "Elizabethtown" starts off great. It paints an authentic portrait of an extended family as the loud obnoxious people we'd all hate but Drew needs. The supporting actors are all terrific, particularly the eccentric guy that sells Drew the urn for his father's ashes. And what would a family reunion be without comic relief characters like the perpetually drunk Chuck (Jed Rees) and Cindy (Emily Ruthurfurd) Hasboro, great lovers of life, each other and everybody else?
Unfortunately, it's as if "Elizabethtown" is divided into Parts one and two. The first half is real. Twenty-something is a dangerous age as adolescence comes to an end and, with it, all the excuses for confusion. At the beginning, Claire and Drew's relationship epitomizes this quarter-life crisis. In one scene, Claire admits that she's "been asleep most of her life," and Drew agrees. She asks him, "do you ever feel like you're just fooling everyone?"
But Part two falls flat. It's as if the characters can't handle their insights; they become trite and their pearls of wisdom corny. Or maybe writer/director Cameron Crowe thought the audience couldn't handle the complex realism of Part one. After all, he's known for his uncomplicated films on life and love, like 1989's "Say Anything" or 1996's "Jerry Maguire." With those movies, the beauty was in its simple idealism, whereas "Elizabethtown" seems to strive for something greater - at least at first.
When its complexity unravels and "Elizabethtown" reaches for the poignant simplicity that is Crowe's trademark, it instead becomes cutesy and clich?©¤® Drew actually dances "with one arm free" as Claire's voiceover urges us all to make time for such trivial things in our busy lives. This isn't exactly up to the standard of John Cusack standing there with the boom box.
"Elizabethtown" asks what the meaning of life is but can't come up with a more profound answer than, well, life is the meaning of life. This isn't really an answer at all. For a while, the film seemed to be building around the argument that the greatness of a man is measured by the people with whom he surrounds himself and not by commercial success. Oh wait, that was "In Good Company."
In this movie, success is simply about living; that itself is achievement enough. Like his wise dad always said, "If it wasn't this, it would be that." But don't kill yourself over it, Drew.
"Elizabethtown" is definitely worth seeing for its subject matter and attempt at depth (after all, it's still Cameron Crowe). But, beware: you'll have to decide for yourself what the meaning of life is, since the movie certainly won't do it for you.
