Saw Broken Flowers Last Night

[Cruel_Sandwich]

Posted: 8/3/05 at 3:43pm

BROKEN FLOWERS *** out of ****

At last, the Bill-Murray-Moping-Around-In-A-Depressed-Daze trifecta is complete. It was a long, yet rewarding, journey but, with the release of Jim Jarmusch's latest flick "Broken Flowers", it would be best for Bill Murray to bid farewell to his mopey bastard character, now a signature for him, and move on to something different and more challenging.

That being said, in Broken Flowers, he plays precisely the same character that he portrayed in Lost in Translation. In fact, I would bet that more than a few audience members may mistake this film as its sequel because they are so similar in tone and intent. This time around, his name is Don Johnston, an aging ladies man who is gets dumped by his girlfriend (Julie Delpy) immediately after the opening credits. Don takes this news as he, presumably, takes most news of this sort: Moping around in his house while listening to music with the lights out. His deppressed haze is interrupted by the arrival of a pink letter from an anonymous ex-girlfriend. It says that he has a son by this woman; a son who is now travelling across the country in search of his father. This information actually shocks Don enough to actually use an exclamation: "What?!?" Don's best friend, Winston (Jeffrey Wright), reacts to this joyously, however. A detective novel junkie, Winston takes this as an opportunity to indulge in a bit of amateur detective work. He convinces Don to make a list of each girlfriend he had 20 years ago and to go visit them across the country at their houses.

Thus, Don sets off on the wide open road to visit these women. He reconnects with them and himself but, most importantly, uses it as an opportunity to mope about even more. All of his moping eventually leads to a brilliant ending which is so open-ended and unexpected that people literally yelled out "THAT SUCKED!" once it was over.

That last sentence wasn't sarcastic. The ending is the best thing about this film. In fact, the ending turns a mildly good movie into a VERY good movie that is more cerebral than you once thought. It completely redefines the entire nature of what has gone before. Some may call it a twist ending, but not in plot terms. It is a twist ending in emotional terms. To say more would be to say too much.

Yet, as good as the ending is, it can't hide the obvious flaws of the rest of the film. The most obvious, and most surprising, of which is Murray himself. He's really just going through the motions here. It feels more like he's imitating himself in Lost in Translation than actually trying to give Don a soul and personality. Look at his characters in Lost in Translation and The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou. They moped around a lot and were basically deppressed middle-aged guys but...they also had personality. They had life. They were true characters. Don just mopes about...and that's it. There is nothing that suggests anything of what these women (Those too aren't developed much at all) see/saw in him. In fact, the only character that actually *is* developed fully is Winston, who represents yet another excellent performance in the Jeffrey Wright canon. Winston's attempts at amateur sleuthing are some of the best scenes of the movie and, once Don goes on the lonely road trip, the movie loses a lot of life. I wish the movie would have focused on their friendship more, just to show what these two very different men see in each other.

So, all in all, Broken Flowers is an entertaining, yet flawed, experience. People who say that this is a more commercial film for Jarmusch are lying, however. This is the most slowly paced film since Eyes Wide Shut and this glacialness (is this a word?) could put a lot of people off. However, go see it, just to savor the quirky dialogue and the fun small roles by the women. Just hope that Murray tries something different the next go-round.

[broadway86]

Posted: 8/3/05 at 3:50pm

I really like the roles that he's been taking lately. I can't wait to see this.

[Pinguin]

Posted: 8/3/05 at 4:23pm

Thanks for the review; I'm very interested!

[broadway86]

Posted: 8/13/05 at 4:57pm

I saw it yesterday afternoon, and I'd say that three stars is about fair. Bill Murray was particularly effective in the second half, and Jeffrey Wright stole his handful of scenes. All of the women were great, but the one who really stuck out was Jessica Lange. She has such a fascinating character. I didn't even recognize Tilda Swinton or Chloe Sevigny until their scenes were almost over.

Now... I'm all for ambiguous endings, but only if they so much as point in one direction or another. I was disappointed that the film ended like that. I felt that it betrayed my rooting interest in Don. Something like that may very well happen in real life, but it doesn't make for a satisfying ending to a movie.

In About Schmidt, While the ending didn't exactly solve Warren Schmidt's problems, it gave the film an emotional release that felt both truthful and resonant. Updated On: 8/13/05 at 04:57 PM

[Cruel_Sandwich]

Posted: 8/13/05 at 5:12pm

But that was the entire point of the movie. If Don had solved the mystery, THAT would have betrayed the character. The entire film was about a guy stuck in idle mode, and idleness doesn't exactly bring about resolution.

[broadway86]

Posted: 8/13/05 at 5:38pm

I'm not suggesting that he should have solved the mystery. I'm just saying that I didn't feel it was a satisfying ending. Not that everything should be pat and figured out, but something... more.

[Cruel_Sandwich]

Posted: 8/13/05 at 11:40pm

Could your feelings of unsatisfaction be intentional? You, yourself, share Don's unsatisfaction of the fact that he has come all of that way, after traveling across the country and reconnecting with his past, and has finally closed his hand on thin air? The various possibilities that we are given at the end of the movie are meant to suggest, possibly, that Don's life is just a complete mess in which nothing is clear because he does literally nothing? In this way, Broken Flowers is like a Shakespearean version of The Big Lebowski. Don's pleasure (or lack thereof) brings about his downfall (if, indeed, he had far to fall).