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What’s happened to Cameron Crowe?

One of our most enjoyable, accessibly literate mainstream filmmakers has lost his way. After 2001’s what-the-hell-was-that Vanilla Sky, Crowe seemingly returned to his character-based strengths in Elizabethtown. But the movie is a messy, meandering collection of tragedy and sentimentality that never achieved liftoff.

Orlando Bloom plays Drew Baylor, creator of a tennis shoe that is such a financial disaster his company lost almost $1 billion. It’s a character who’s hit rock bottom the moment we meet him, but Bloom is such a dreamy, metrosexual presence that he can’t carry the movie’s burden upon his pretty-boy shoulders. After being escorted out the building by the company’s CEO (Alec Baldwin, hilarious in a brief appearance), Drew gets a second piece of bad news: his father has died while visiting rural Elizabethtown, Kentucky, the town where he grew up before wife Hollie (Susan Sarandon) convinced him to move to glossy, empty California. It is Drew’s responsibility to fly to Elizabethtown and claim his father’s body. His flight, unlike any in post-9/11 history, is completely empty. This gives flighty flight attendant Claire (Kirsten Dunst) nothing to do, so she strikes up a conversation with him.

With the introduction of Claire, comes a big problem with Elizabethtown. Claire is such an overbearing mound of Southern fried charm, that she’s almost constantly annoying, an insufferably free spirit next to Drew’s near-suicidal ennui. Hanging around Claire is just what Drew needs, although he doesn’t realize it. Over the course of their rocky courtship, she convinces him that failing, even at his level, is easy. But carrying on despite the humiliation is what’s hard and ultimately noble. But she’s a harsh and overbearing creation and Dunst can’t round her edges.

Drew’s family in Elizabethtown is a cacophonous, blustery crew typical to any holiday table. But Drew doesn’t fit in. To them, he’s a city slicker, the big time failure who wants his father cremated, to everyone’s horror. Luckily, Claire is around to hold Drew’s hand and lighten his spirit while they run amok in a local hotel and crash a wedding. Toward the end, the movie plays its strongest card. Drew is going to drive home, not fly, and Claire organizes an elaborate road trip, with stops in legendary towns and landmarks. It’s an extended montage, set to terrific music and it works. The problem is that it’s used as the climatic end of an emotional journey the audience never took. It’s too late. The movie’s already failed.

Crowe is a great writer but here he writes like someone who knows he’s great and wants us to gorge on his considerable attributes. Scenes go on endlessly, starting with Drew and Claire’s cell phone conversation, a bit of mobile foreplay that won’t end even when it ends. It keeps going, as the pair leave their respective beds, get into their respective cars, and drive towards each other . . . all while continuing to talk on the phone. Some of Crowe’s comedy concepts are forced, like the early bit about how you can tell when you’re being looking at for the last time, either because you’re being fired or dumped. I’m still trying to figure that one out. The memorial service for Drew’s father only seals the deal. Susan Sarandon gives an unconvincing eulogy that ends with her twirling and dancing, a moment of embarrassing flatness, when the movie officially transitions from disappointment to complete misfire.

Elizabethtown wants to combine the laughs and endearment of a screwball comedy with the pathos of a drama. It winds up with neither. That’s not to say the movie isn’t watchable. It is watchable. But it really overshoots the runway, making it a deflating experience.

The Video: How Does The Disc Look?

I heard good things about this 1.85:1 anamorphic transfer, that it was very sharp, really detailed, and a joy to watch. You know, what? I disagree. I found it generally nice, but I was really let down by the hype. My major problem is a lack of sharpness. I have a 43-inch, high-def plasma and I found everything but the close-ups too soft. The colors have a rich, suburban depth, with nice yellows and greens. A thin layer of grain adds to the cinematic look. The interior scenes are dark for my taste, even though wonderful DP John Toll (The Thin Red Line) likes to work dark. Blacks and contrast during the exterior night scenes are great. Flesh tones looked accurate and, as alluded to earlier, I did think the detail on the close-ups is expert. Surprisingly, I did notice a couple of splotches. It’s a rich transfer, but it’s too soft.

The Audio: How Does The Disc Sound?
 
The Dolby Digital 5.1 track is pretty subdued, except for the music. The dialogue is crystal clear, with no tearing or shrillness no matter the volume or pitch. There’s some nice use of the surrounds, like in the Southern exteriors, which feature summertime crickets and mosquitoes. Otherwise, the surrounds really just add light ambiance. The sides are moderately employed, but I wish more dialogue came from the lefts and rights. Pretty much all the dialogue comes from the center. To state the obvious, Cameron Crowe loves music and the music is where the mix shines. From Nancy Wilson’s acoustic score to the usual Crowetastic variety of rock chestnuts, it’s all beautiful, with deep bass and lots of detail. It’s not an ambitious track, but it’s got clean dialogue and good music.

There are also an English Dolby Surround 2.0 and a French Dolby Digital 5.1 track, and subtitles in English, Spanish, and French.

Supplements: What Goodies Are There?

There’s an okay collection of supplements that seem to suggest a two-disc extravaganza in the near future that will, hopefully, include the ill- fated cut that screened at the Toronto Film Festival. Of course, why see a longer version of a film that doesn’t work when it’s shorter? Who knows? But until then, this adequate single disc includes the following rental-targeted time killers:

Training Wheels is a bizarre montage featurette of camcorder footage presumably shot during rehearsals. There’s no dialogue from the actors. Instead we hear one of Nancy Wilson’s original songs. I kept waiting for this piece to go somewhere. It plays like the pre-credit introduction to a documentary. But at the end of its two minutes, I learned nothing, except that actors like to stand around soundstages.

Meet the Crew is another montage featurette set to Nancy Wilson’s guitar (at least I assume it’s Nancy Wilson’s guitar). Here we get brief glimpses of various crewmembers, Key Grip, Gaffer, Steadicam Operator, Assistant Property Master and DP among them, mulling around on-set. Everyone gets three seconds to smile, as their first name is chyroned underneath them. I guess this is supposed to add a familial, whimsical feeling to the DVD (“Meet the Elizabethtown family”), but it just plays like a throwaway.

Next are two Extended Scenes. The first is Rusty’s Learning to Listen, Part 8. In the film, a group of noisy kids finally shut up when put in front of the TV to watch a video of a house blowing up. The video is creepy because the main character, some sort of contractor or construction guy named Rusty, repeatedly asks “will you promise to behave and mind your mommy and daddy?” before rewarding them by destroying the house. Anyway, this is an extended version of the “Rusty’s Learning to Listen” video. The second extended scene is Hanging with Russell in Memphis. During Drew’s climatic road trip, he visits Earnestine and Hazel’s, a Memphis bar, run by Russ, who has seen all the great blues guitarists pass through. This 7-minute extended piece includes b-roll of the bar and fun reminisces from Russ.

Next is a Photo Gallery broken up into ten chapters. Only the Behind the Scenes chapter is any good. The rest are just publicity-style photos.