Elizabethtown

I've been trying to figure out exactly how to explain Cameron Crowe's newest movie "Elizabethtown", and I think I've discovered the irony of my situation. The story focuses Drew Baylor (Orlando Bloom), who is on both a physical journey to retrieve his dead father's body and a mental journey trying to determine his own path in life. The irony is that the direction of the movie is as much without focus as Drew's life seems.

Drew Baylor has had a very bad day. Once a rising hotshot executive for an international shoe company, he must try to come to terms with that fact that his latest shoe design is a colossal failure, which will cost the company nearly $1 billion. Upon arriving home, he gets the call that his father has died while visiting friends and relatives in Elizabethtown, Kentucky. Drew's mother (Susan Sarandon) insists that he be the one to deal with all the relatives that she can't stand and handle all the arrangements. The only bright spot in his day comes during the flight when Flight Attendant Claire Colburn (Kirsten Dunst) takes a liking to Drew.

The remainder of the movie involves Drew meeting every eccentric relative who he hasn't seen in years and dealing with his sister and mother over the phone, all while the story of his shoe failure is about to be made public. The only saving grace are the phone calls from Claire and the cellular phone relationship that develops. She eventually insists that Drew follow a road map that she draws up for his return trip home to have a road trip with his cremated father while also seeing America.

As I said, there's a lot going on. Crowe doesn't seem to be able to focus on any one particular segment of the story, which only weakens the overall movie. Orlando Bloom is surprisingly solid in this role, even though his Americanized accent still needs work. More surprising to me though is just how annoying Kirsten Dunst's character is. She is terribly miscast in this movie and the character is more out of place in the mix than a Cub fan at a White Sox game.

Overall, "Elizabethtown" does have its moments. The most moving piece, and best acting from Bloom, comes during the road trip near the end of the show. Unfortunately, that comes very near the two hour mark and only extends something that needed to be shortened even more than the 18 minutes Crowe cut after the initial showing. Rentable. I give it a B-.

"Elizabethtown" is rated PG-13 with a running time of 123 minutes.