Elizabethtown

There's that moment at the beginning of a movie where you just know in your gut whether or not you're going to like it or feel it's just a waste of your time. That moment never really comes in Elizabethtown. It's a movie that just screams, "meh." It's not great, but it's not terrible, either. It's not particularly moving, but it's not a complete joke either.

Cameron Crowe's latest film stars Orlando Bloom as Drew Baylor, a man who has just stepped into a colossal fiasco, not a failure, and lost his job (because he cost the company close to 1 billion dollars). On top of everything, his father dies suddenly and he's forced to go to Elizabethtown, Kentucky to gather up the body. On the way, he meets a plucky stewardess Claire, who changes his life (of course she does).

See, there's so much potential there: fish out of water in the South, estranged family coming together to celebrate a beloved figure, meeting the girl of your dreams just as your life implodes. But there's something about the film that just doesn't work; it falls into deeply contrived situations that would be better spent in a second-rate TV movie than in a Hollywood blockbuster (what am I saying, I actually went to see Pearl Harbor in the theatre).

Don't get me wrong, I love a bit of cheese every now and again, but this movie just hovers and never quite gets there. Maybe because the main characters forge the basis of their relationship on cell phones. Maybe because the whole situation with Drew's job is just so ridiculous it's unbelievable. Maybe because Kirsten Dunst just doesn't pull off a "Southern Belle" as she should. Who knows? Orlando Bloom was great, and there's a wonderfully heartfelt scene with Susan Sarandon that almost makes the movie.

Oh, and there's a road trip that's pretty spectacular, if the ending of the movie didn't blow so bad, it might have actually saved it. I did adore one thing about the film, and that's Paul Schneider, who might just be my next big crush. Yummy!

In the end, I'm still holding on for that one movie that shakes me up this year, and I haven't found it yet. Where's Tully when you need him?