The eye maybe the window to the soul, but angst is undoubtedly its service entrance and, once unlocked, allows for a heavy traffic in both foolishness and wisdom.

If you're a fan of director Cameron Crowe's movies (and I am) you know he likes to set up his romantic comedies by unraveling the egocentric lives of his heroes; casting them adrift on a angst-ridden journey that leaves them a little banged up but also more awake for their troubles.

So Jerry McGuire, that poster boy for Tony Robbins infomercials, finds himself standing alone in the wreckage of his high-flying sports agent career holding a goldfish in a Ziploc bag while the vain rock stars of "Almost Famous" dwell in terror of what a 15-year old will write about them - because it will probably be true.

Crowe's latest film "Elizabethtown" stays true to this formula. Drew Baylor (Orlando Bloom) is a rising star in the athletic shoe industry whose latest creation is such a failure - we're not talking soft-sales failure, we're talking massive-recall failure - that is has pushed his employer (Alec Baldwin) to the brink of ruin and reduced his own career to a smudge of smoke and ash. Reeling from this personal calamity, Drew finds himself blindsided by a greater tragedy. His sister (Judy Greer) calls to tell him their father has died suddenly on a trip to visit relatives in Kentucky and his mother (Susan Sarandon) wants him to go and bring dad's body home.

Under a dark cloud of despair Drew heads off for Elizabethtown, Ky. and comes face to face with a world determined to come back to life around him. On the flight Drew meets Claire Colburn (Kirsten Dunst), a sprightly flight attendant who seems to have made it her personal mission to keep talking until Drew cheers up. Once in Elizabethtown, Drew runs into his colorful small town relatives and the realization that here grief is a community event. Crowe's sharp eye for back-road Americana and the inspired choice of Dunst as the romantic interest forecast a sweet journey of healing for Drew's tattered soul.

But while the pieces are all there for a classic Cameron Crowe story something doesn't quite lift off.

I was tempted to blame Orlando Bloom. As an actor, Bloom can go quiet on you - a habit that works better for elves than lovers - and you wonder if he's deflating the movie leaving Kirsten Dunst in spasms of hyperventilated perkiness trying keep the story energized. But I think Crowe is the culprit here.

In Crowe's best movies his characters stumble into grace as friendships and romances unfold in unexpected ways. It may be schmaltz, but it's organic schmaltz. In contrast the key scenes in "Elizabethtown" have a manufactured feel with the characters forced to act out a foregone conclusion. More often than not actors are left stranded in over-long scenes tap dancing figuratively-or in Susan Sarandon's case literally - to get us from one end of a contrived moment of cuteness to the other.

Now, in its defense "Elizabethtown" does have its moments. Alec Baldwin makes good use of his role as the self-possessed sneaker mogul and the way a well meaning local rock band reduces the memorial service to chaos is worth a good laugh.

Bloom and Dunst do make an attractive couple and when the chemistry sparks they are a pleasure to watch. But the movie itself is just a little too stiffly directed to come to life.

Bruce Bulloch reviews movies coming to the Admiral on a regular basis and can be reached at wseditor@robinsonnews.com