It is a sad thing indeed when heroes begin to fade.

Since writing the 80s teen movie classic, Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Cameron Crowe has rarely failed to impress.

Be it Say Anything, his affectionate testament to teen love, or the Oscar winning double of Jerry Maguire and Almost Famous, his portraits of troubled males both touch and stir.

Even the under-appreciated Vanilla Sky had some fine moments, and boasted one of the very best soundtracks of recent years.

This begins promisingly enough. The Crowe trademarks are readily apparent - loving silhouettes, great songs, and a disaffected man, in this case played by Orlando Bloom, seemingly at the end of his tether.

Worryingly though, none of it seems fresh. If anything, it feels like an empty facsimile of the early parts of Jerry Maguire, right down to the career girlfriend dumping our transitional hero at the first sign of failure.

Bloom is Drew Baylor, a budding shoe designer, who's new product fails so spectacularly it costs his company close to a billion dollars.

Unable to cope, Drew decides to take his life, but is interrupted by a distraught sister informing him of his father's premature death.

So begins Drew's inevitable path to redemption. On the flight to collect his father's body he meets bubbly stewardess Kirsten Dunst, and despite himself begins to rely on her as his outlet in all this madness.

He arrives in Elizabethtown, Kentucky, his father's childhood home, and is surprised by how quickly he is accepted and embraced by the townfolk.

His mother, played by the ever fabulous Susan Sarandon, remains at home in California, and busies herself with tap-dancing and cooking.

Anything, in fact, to fill the hole in her life left by her husband's demise.

Its difficult to really put a finger on what went wrong: on paper it seems the perfect outlet for Crowe's skills as both writer and director.

Unfortunately, however, it fails to engage on any level. Part of the blame for this must be levelled at Bloom's performance - he doesn't allow the audience to understand, much less empathise with what it is that he is going through.

This has repurcussions for the rest of the cast - what exactly is it that Dunst sees in this seemingly emotionless young man? Why would she continue to pursue him?

The innevitable happy ending feels contrived, something that you can forgive when you love the characters (as we did in Jerry Maguire), more difficult when we don't, as an audience, care.

Crowe seems a director who's lost his voice. Let's hope it doesn't take hime too long to find it again.

Nick Forward