Elizabethtown (2005)

Drew Baylor (Orlando Bloom) has every right to feel like the world is out to get him. He was the toast of his company, having spent eight years developing a new shoe design that was thought to surely bring him fame and riches. It bombs. Period. As Drew ponders his future, he remarks: "There's a big difference between a failure and a fiasco." His career is over. The company is forced to splash out almost a billion dollars on the product. We are not told why the shoe failed to connect with consumers; it had to be down to more than aesthetic problems anyway. As Drew returns to his apartment, sullen and alone, he sees only one option. Having invested so much energy into his career, this young man has nothing else to grasp hold of. At least that is what he believes. On the edge of terminating his life, the sound of a mobile phone ringing intervenes. Not from the gods, but from his sister who is passing on the devastating news that their father has died. This news has temporarily saved Drew's life.

From what I have so far written it seems like Elizabethtown is going to be a downbeat endeavour that ends in a flourish of joy, where one man appreciates the folly of his past ways, accepts that his goals were too narrow, and begins to understand, then gradually fall for, the little things in life. Drew's trip to Louisville, Kentucky was going to be his last good deed before he joined his father in death, yet from the earliest moments of the journey it is pretty clear that Drew is quietly lifting himself out of the darkness in his own life as he realizes that his old life wasn't so great. The people who disappeared so quickly up his backside in his moment of glory were only fair weather friends. At the end of a tiring flight and car trip from coast to coast almost, Drew throws down his bags in the hotel suite, slumps back on a sofa, and proceeds to call all the people who matter in his life. The total: four.

And it's remarkable to think that one of the messages he leaves is to someone he only met on the flight to Louisville, a sexy, smart flight attendant named Claire (Kirsten Dunst). She seems to have a little crush on him as they sit on their plane filled with one passenger and one steward. Drew's brain is all over the place during this scenario and he does not find himself capable of dealing with her eccentricities. Why, then, does he want to speak to someone he initially found so irritating? Maybe he did like her. Or maybe he realizes that he would break her heart by not contacting her at least once. Or perhaps, at that very moment, he realized the difference between being alone and being lonely.

Unlike Garden State, the romantic segment of this plot does not dominate the story. There are many strands here, one could argue too many since a lot of the subplots are minimally pursued, yet the movie unfolds in a delightful state of whimsy. Now, whimsy isn't always a good thing. Sometimes in whimsical films we get such great sequences being built and then witness their conclusion with a whimper rather than a bang. We grin but we don't laugh. Elizabethtown has moments that are very funny, and many more moments that are so unusual that we feel forced to either crack a smile or alternatively scratch our heads. The reason why we don't get a big pay off to the majority of the vignettes, I suppose, is because in real life they just don't come.

The movie has not been advertised as a movie that will be really funny, but it has its charms and is sweet. It doesn't directly try to make the viewer cry; if it does move you to tears then it has exceeded what it set out to do. I surmise that if you do feel such emotions lingering from your eyes, you may have directly linked Drew's situation to your own life. I don't think it's compulsory for someone to have already buried their parents to find the connection to this story. Take it from me.

It would be inconceivable to review this picture without mentioning the soundtrack. Whether diegetic music or just music playing dislocatedly from the action, we are constantly drawn to it, and at times the dialogue from the actors is drowned out by the sounds of Southern rock. You wouldn't have to bang your head off a wall to guess that Cameron Crowe is the writer/director of Elizabethtown given his track record features some terrific musical sing-alongs (the "Tiny Dancer" number in Almost Famous springs to mind) and in this film I can once again remark that the former Rolling Stone journalist has great taste in music. Not only that, but he fits the songs perfectly to the scenes. His back catalogue saw him marry the tunes to great moments and the slight difficulty here is that the soundtrack is cranked up at some lesser points and makes the technique unmistakably forced.

Crowe is a splendid screenwriter, and he has an acute ear for picking up on everyday vernacular speech. The characters mumble and mix up their lines at times, but we get the gist of what they try to say. The script also includes some peculiar episodes. Is it realistic for Drew's mother, played by Susan Sarandon, to run around like a headless chicken once she realizes her husband is not coming back? Or is it possible for her to tap dance so efficiently to "Moon River" having only started to take lessons and in her current state? Probably not, but it doesn't matter if everything fails to makes sense collectively because Elizabethtown is all about the little moments and not about the big picture. Looking back on some of the dialogue, like when Claire says: "So you're a son of a Mitch" after learning the name of Drew's father, you wonder what its purpose was. If you think like that then you will miss the boat. Thinking about some of the phrases I said today in my own life, I look back and cringe, but at the time they seem plausible.

To state that I was taken back by the directing would be an understatement. The frame composition in films like Say Anything and Almost Famous looked like they were boxed in, tied by a flimsy pink ribbon with the odd rose seeping through the images. This film is much freer. It's shot in a languid manner with plenty of quirky camera angles, particularly in depicting the many on the road shots. It feels more alive and more urgent than in any of Crowe's previous movies. It is his most unorthodox studio picture, and represents his best work behind the camera, so it is a shame that the writing is not on par with his high standards. There is no "I gave her my heart, she gave me a pen" or "show me the money" or "it's all happening." Still, this is a mere quibble.

Bloom's role was held for a long period in 2003 during pre-production by Ashton Kutcher, and it is a blessing that the former came in as a replacement. I've never been a Bloom fan but he was perfect in this role. We can debate whether he has the acting skills to become the next big thing and win Academy Awards, but his passive, somber portrayal of Drew creates a kind of lackluster grandeur. He is so effective in the role that you forget why he is having such a hard time warming to Claire and you want to reach out and tap him on the shoulder and remind him that this girl deeply cherishes him. Dunst is perky and sweet, and just slightly off-the-wall, but you know what?  She is a real person. The things she tells Drew may be fifty percent lies, but we like her more as we can sense her fundamental insecurities. She is not a bunny boiler, but like Drew, realizes that being alone can lend itself to loneliness. Sarandon is only a bit player in the film, though she does excel in one big moment. Upon cracking a joke about a friend comforting her a little too much, it results in a comedic situation emerging from the midst of tragedy. The shifts in mood will either have you rolling your eyes or acknowledging the lump in your throat.

Final

If you ever see the sign for Elizabethtown then it is worth making the trip. The movie has its moments, with the lead actors complementing each other and bouncing off one another as they seek an algorithm to heal them of their bruises. The film is light and breezy, coasting along in the slow lane as if time were not an issue. We invest so much into Drew and Claire that we gladly cruise along, and if occasionally the path meanders, we are confident that the destination will be worth the detours. Sometimes it's during the empty moments in life that we learn the most about ourselves. Elizabethtown has characters and scenes that do not forward the plot, but from moment to moment it is compulsively watchable.