Bloom: Period pieces beware: I'm taking on a contemporary role! I even get to talk on the telephone... up yours, Legolas!Cameron Crowe's feature film homage to his father,
Elizabethtown, is the story of a depressed, estranged son struggling in his career, who must suddenly face a parent's death and travel back to his roots to deal with the funeral. Along the way, he meets a unique, beautiful girl who is so full of life and little tidbits of advice that she changes his life. I liked this movie better the first time I saw it, when it was called
Garden State.
As the estranged son Drew Baylor, Orlando Bloom tosses aside swords, bows, and arrows, and ventures into the world of contemporary characters. Bloom took over the role of Drew after Ashton Kutcher had been cast and fired by Crowe for not being able to act. And that's a good thing, because Kutcher would have turned this middle of the road dramedy into a piece of crap not worth watching. Bloom is nice to look at, and his eyebrows hint at an edge of sorrow in his life, though in some of his scenes, I was not quite convinced that he was the right man to play the young, corporate business tycoon/ inventor Drew Baylor. Bloom isn't quite slick enough (and I'm not talking about his hair) to play Baylor; I imagine Topher Grace or Ryan Reynolds could have done a little more with the role.
As the kooky, crazy, lovable, underappreciated-by-her-boyfriend-Ben love interest Claire, Kirsten Dunst locks into the Southern accent and does pretty well staying in character. However, Claire says a lot of ambiguous fortune-cookie lines that are supposed to be really deep but don't quite make sense: "I'm impossible to forget, but hard to remember." Her best moments are when she says the simple lines, like "Let go" when she's telling Drew to let go of his father's blue suit so she can hang it up for him. Obviously, what she means though, is for Drew to let go of the melancholy that has engulfed his life.
Other great moments in the film occur with Chuck, a groom-to-be staying at the same hotel as Drew, and the accidental burning of a paper mache bird. In addition, the realistic portrayal of a large Southern family adds to the sense of gravitas in the film; rather than stereotyping the Kentucky branch of the Baylor family, Crowe provides a cast that seems truly Southern in their dialect and mannerisms.
As for the rest of the casting, the acting talents of Judy Greer and Susan Sarandon (as Drew's sister and mother, respectively) were wasted in this movie. Greer, best known for her comedic roles in
13 Going on 30 and
Arrested Development, tries to make the most of her flatly written character, but as the stereotypical slightly neurotic, slightly sympathetic younger sister, Greer hardly has a moment to shine. Sarandon, a veritable powerhouse of an actress, is reduced to a few schticky lines here and there as the Contemporary West Coast mother trying to handle her husband's sudden death. Unfortunately, Sarandon does have one scene to herself: the unbearably long and uncomfortable stand-up routine she performs at her husband's memorial service, followed by an even more unbearably long and uncomfortable tap dance routine. The comedy act and dance performance are supposed to highlight her creativity and uniqueness as the woman who really loved Mitch, but instead, I was as horrified as Greer pretends to be in the film. Rather than covering my mouth, though, I wanted to cover my eyes.
As always with Crowe's movies, the soundtrack is the best aspect of the film, but Crowe uses the music to carry the emotional heft of the film, rather than letting the actors carry the burden of making the audience feel something. The pen-ultimate road trip at the end of the movie provides some good tunes and offers some beautiful snapshots of American landscape, but a jarring visit to the hotel site of Martin Luther King Jr.'s assassination seems to scream
TAKE THIS MOVIE SERIOUSLY! The visit is completely unnecessary to the plot and really has nothing to do with Drew's journey into himself. Ultimately, the movie runs a little long, tries to be too poignant, and leaves the viewer wishing he'd just paid for the soundtrack.
Grade: B -
