ELIZABETHTOWN

Reviewed by Humby:

Before I get into what I thought of ELIZABETHTOWN, I have to say that I am a BIG fan of its writer/director, Cameron Crowe. I think “Almost Famous” is one of the best films of the decade. The thing that makes Cameron among the ranks of great filmmakers is that he is second to none in capturing those precious real moments on screen. A look. A word. A feeling. There is no one better than him at this. That brings me to ELIZABETHTOWN.
Are the moments still precious when you try so hard to capture them? I don’t think so. It seems like all he was trying to do for 2+ hours is pack as many of those ‘Cameron Crowe’ moments into the film as possible. The problem is I felt him trying, and it made the movie seem fake and devoid of the genuine emotion that Crowe is usually so great at. He just tried too hard this time.

There are some great scenes in this film, including one sequence in the middle involving an all night phone conversation between Drew (Orlando Bloom) and Claire (Kirsten Dunst). But when so much of the movie feels manipulative and false, it makes it harder to fall for the moments that do work. This is not a bad movie, but it is not the movie Cameron Crowe has proven himself capable of. It is cute… he is better than that.
This is Orlando's first chance to really show that he is an actor. I think that he is going to need another one. He, like the movie, is uneven, great at times and really not believable at others. His accent is passable at best, and his emotion seems forced a good deal of the movie. He really wants his “I gave her my heart and she gave me a pen” moment, but he's trying too hard.

Kirsten is probably my favorite performance in the film. It helps that she has a great character, full of life, someone that we all would like to meet. She has an infectious charm and an exuberance that radiates from her in this movie. Some things bothered me about her performance, most notably her accent. There are scenes where it just disappears.




The rest of the cast… Susan Sarandon, Alec Baldwin, Judy Greer and Paul Schneider, are all fine. There is really not that much to say about them. If I would have bought into the emotion of the movie, I think I would have enjoyed it much more.