A surfeit of whimsy.

Cameron Crowe's Elizabethtown got its first major review via Variety. I really want to like this film--especially after the worthless Vanilla Sky--but after skimming Leslie Felperin's write up it's looking rough. Here's why:

1. Look at the second paragraph:
   

   Although presumably in development for some time, basic set-up sounds like a sunnier, studio version of Zach Braff's indie hit "Garden State," which beat "Elizabethtown" to the punch by a year and a half. "State" was a similar tale of a depressed young man who travels back East for a parent's funeral and ends up finding love with a gorgeous, hip chick. But where Braff's pic was riddled with slacker angst and featured characters with jagged edges, nearly everyone in "Elizabethtown" is as gosh-darn nice as a warm sunny day.

   
   Wait, the characters in Garden State were edgy? This is Diet Garden State? Hoo boy.
   
   
2. Worse: the opening paragraph.
   "[E'town's] busy, neo-screwball script--about a shoe designer planning his father's funeral in a Kentucky town while falling for a perky stewardess met en route--suffers from arch editing and a surfeit of whimsical subplots."
   
   
3. It's bad enough that Orlando is the leading man... But Cameron has to up it and make him a shoe designer. Worst.
   
   
4. The film's running time is 138 minutes. For a zany carpe diem rom-com, that's a lot of whimsy.