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ELIZABETHTOWN has some similarities to In Her Shoes. Drew Baylor (Orlando Bloom) designs a line of sports shoes that fail. This results in the company losing a billion dollars in projected sales.
Drew, close to suicide, gets a call from his frantic sister, Heather (Judy Greer), who tells him their father has suddenly died while on a visit to his boyhood home in Elizabethtown, Kentucky. Their mother, Hollie (Susan Sarandon), wants Drew to bring his father’s body back to Oregon for burial.
When he flies to Kentucky, Drew meets Claire (Kirsten Dunst), a perky flight attendant who tries to help him. When Drew meets his quirky Southern relatives, they want to bury his father in the family plot.
Elizabethtown is written and directed by Cameron Crowe, who gave us Oscar winners Jerry Maguire and Almost Famous. Although Elizabethtown tries hard and has a top notch cast, it’s a pastiche three disparate stories put together, creating a feeling of dissonance.
While In Her Shoes uses footwear as a motif that unifies the story into a comprehensive and satisfying tale, Elizabethtown would have benefited from an identifiable motif or a coherent theme. Some may say that the soundtrack ties the film together, but I just didn’t hear the music.
Both films appeal to an audience that appreciates meaningful viewing the struggle with despair, failure, temptation to suicide, family, growing up, romance, transformation, forgiveness. In Her Shoes, however, is the better film. Some crude language and an implied sexual encounter.
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