Elizabethtown suffers most from being too much like Crowe’s most popular film, Jerry Maguire. As a rule, Crowe’s characters are very tuned in to the popular culture. Drew Baylor, the sports shoe designer who sees his career go down the tubes in spectacular fashion, is the kind of guy who, if he lived up to this standard, would be able to quote Jerry Maguire chapter and verse. That film and so many of Crowe’s movies for the last 20 years, have given hopeless romantics of the modern age reason to believe in romance. From John Cusack with a boom box raised over his head, to a drunk Campbell Scott screaming “You belong with me” into the phone with ferocious determination, to Tom Cruise declaring “ You complete me” in front of the divorced women’s support group, there is no more romantic filmmaker in (Jerry’s words) “this cynical world.”

Maybe Crowe felt he had to go back to his own life to try to restore some of his faith in romance. Almost Famous, his autobiographical account of the early days of rock n’ roll and rock n’ roll journalism, was admired (mostly) and enjoyed. Then he veered out into the weird world of the psychological thriller with Vanilla Sky, a not terribly satisfying remake of a fairly satisfying Spanish language film Open Your Eyes.

Elizabethtown is autobiographical - at least in terms of family - and it is the eccentricities of family and their connections to Elizabethtown, Kentucky that are the high points in the movie. More on that in a minute.

It is the corporate overlay, the career crisis of Drew that feels very familiar and isn’t very interesting. Drew’s corporate self isn’t very convincingly shaped. One thing about Jerry Maguire, the guy is a genuine jerk at the beginning of the movie. His growth is painful. Drew is much more bland. The spectacular loss he causes his company makes him want to commit suicide - not particularly believably.

The convention that, when word of his failure hits the street in a week in the form of an article in a business rag, his whole world will collapse is a big yawn. That’s not much actual jeopardy. Claire, the perky flight attendant who begins stalking Drew - in the most charming possible way - when they meet on his flight to Louisville, points that out to him, though he doesn’t believe her, at least not at first.

Claire and Drew are played by Kirsten Dunst and Orlando Bloom. Dunst’s character is lovely and charming and much wiser than her years, not a stretch for her. Bloom’s performance is as bland as his character. Ashton Kutcher was originally cast as Drew and was let go when Crowe didn’t think he could handle the role. While I don’t have much confidence in Kutcher’s acting ability, part of any actor’s difficulty in this role is the role itself.

Drew’s trip to Kentucky is a sad necessity. His father, while on a visit to his hometown, has died of a heart attack. Drew’s father was a favorite son of Elizabethtown, a West Point graduate, a hero and a success. The town has never forgiven Drew’s mother for carrying Drew’s father off to “California,” though really they live in Oregon.

Elizabethtown, Kentucky is the heart of this movie. It seems like Crowe understands this, since that’s the title of the film, but Elizabethtown would be so much more fun if Crowe gave the Kentucky crowd more time and room. Drew stays in a hotel in Louisville, just down the road from Elizabethtown, on the same floor as most of the wedding party of Chuck and Cindy. Chuck busts Drew stealing some of his beer, and the wedding party adopts Drew and provides some very entertaining background humor.

Drew’s extended family is a very entertaining group. Louden Wainwright and Paula Deen (Paula’s Home Cooking) seem right at home as Uncle Dale and Aunt Dora. Paul Schneider as Cousin Jessie is very funny. His band reunites for the memorial service, and they treat us to the longest, most ridiculous “Freebird” joke ever. Luckily, it is also quite funny.

Drew’s mother, played by Susan Sarandon, comes East for the memorial and delivers a bawdy but loving tribute to her husband that wins over everyone who has been resenting her for years. It is an odd, extended scene, but is supposedly nearly exactly the speech Crowes’ mother delivered at his father’s service in Kentucky. Knowing that it is true helps smooth over the oddness of the scene, but just watching the movie the scene sticks out for two reasons. Most tributes don’t include tap dancing and repeated use of the word boner, but much more importantly, it is the only speech by anyone in the dead man’s immediate family that gives you any real sense that he will be missed.

Love and loss, important themes in the film, barely seem to register on the emotions of Drew. Until the road trip. Claire makes Drew promise to drive home to Oregon by himself, and she gives him the ultimate tour map to follow. It may be sappy and precious, but the fabulous soundtrack and the back roads tour of the U.S. is the most genuinely felt, truly romantic and wonderfully American part of Elizabethtown. And there are plenty of little moments in Elizabethtown that keep the movie very likable, despite its faults.

Cameron Crowe can pick the tunes and the destinations for me anytime. I just hope he chooses the destinations for himself and his next film with a little more consideration. Crowe, to paraphrase one of his most hilarious creations, may be “hanging on by a very thin thread,” but I dig that about him, man!