Broken Flowers

(2005)

Directed by

Jim Jarmusch

Review by Todd Plucknett

The Jim Jarmusch film Broken Flowers is one of the most original, touching, sweet, and thoroughly enjoyable films in the past several years. It has a certain stillness to it that makes the film so mesmerizing to watch and so quirkily delightful. The pace of the film may seem slow to people who are not into the indie comedy genre, but it spends so little time at each place and leaves the audience with so much longing for more at each location. Miraculously, none of this is distracting. Some may get enveloped in the mystery of it, but people like me will just have the pleasure of watching the main character get reacquainted with his past life. The mystery is about the least interesting aspect of the film.

The film revolves around an aging womanizer named Don Johnston (Bill Murray). It starts in an almost About Schmidt kind of way, in which Don is sitting on a couch staring at the TV. His current girlfriend Sherry (the lovely Julie Delpy) walks in and leaves him. Don goes back to his couch, lays down, looking fairly indifferent, and he falls asleep. He picks up his mail a bit later, and he heads over to his neighbor Winston’s (Jeffrey Wright) house. Winston is someone obsessed with detail, and he is somewhat of a detective. Don sits down, helps Winston with his computer (in which field he apparently made his fortune) and opens his mail. He sees a pink letter that was pointed out previously by Sherry upon her leaving. That letter, with neither a return address nor a signature, was allegedly from one of Don’s former lovers. It explained that he has a 19 year old son that he doesn’t know about. The letter said that he took off recently, most likely looking for his father. Don basically writes it off as a joke, but Winston convinces him to do something about it.

The two sit down to have a cup of coffee. Winston unveils his master plan for Don to go to all the possible former lovers who could have written it and look for clues that would match that person to the pink paper with red handwriting and red typewriter ink. He eventually reluctantly accepts, if for nothing else than to satisfy Winston’s need to know. At the time, Don could have cared less. However, he takes off on his journey, where he meets his former lovers Laura (Sharon Stone), Dora (Frances Conroy), Carmen (Oscar-winner Jessica Lange), and Penny (Oscar-winner Tilda Swinton). The adventure brings about fantastic insight into relationships, longing to live in the past, regrets from past mistakes, and uncertainty of what the future will bring. It is all handled wonderfully, and at no point is it a typical road movie. It is a beautiful journey into the life and mind of someone that the audience can’t help but feel sympathy and/or empathy for.

This film is belongs to Bill Murray. He has proven that he is the quietest comedian there is, which is also realized in Lost in Translation and the Wes Anderson films. He can do absolutely nothing, not even make a facial expression, and the audience cannot take their eyes off of him. Doing nothing is apparently hilarious, and no one could have played the indifference and awkwardness of Don like Murray. It is a brilliant performance that is perhaps his finest to date. Jeffrey Wright also gives a very offbeat performance as Don’s sidekick. The relationship between those two is so strange and interesting, that it is in a way like Miles and Jack in Sideways.

All the supporting players are fantastic in their small parts. Sharon Stone is superb in her role as the lovable widow of a race car driver. Her daughter is played by Alexis Dziena, who does an effective job at playing the flirting teenager. Six Feet Under star Frances Conroy is great as the somewhat grieving wife of co-business partner Ron (played by the great Christopher McDonald). The scenes with these people make for the most uncomfortable scenes in the movie, which is not a bad thing at all. Jessica Lange is great as an “animal communicator”. She is the most hostile toward Don, as is her impatient secretary, played by Chloe Sevigny. It is a shame that Sevigny’s amazing talent has gotten reduced to the point of playing bit parts, but she makes the most of it. Tilda Swinton is almost unrecognizable in her role as probably the only woman of the four that dumped Don.

The film is flawlessly shot. There are several takes when there is almost nothing happening, and at one point, there is just a revolving camera around Don’s expressionless face. These moments completely capture the feelings and longing that Don eventually feels. There is so much authenticity portrayed in those shots, showing his brokenness, uncertainty, and disappointment. It only adds to the wonder and mystery of it all. Although, those who are expecting it to be strictly a mystery tied together with a bow are going to be frustrated. It is a hypnotic mystery of sorts, but in no way is the film about the mystery; it is about self-discovery and past mistakes. The mood is completely held together with the subtlety of Jarmusch’s sensitive screenplay and the wonderful music by Jazz musician Mulatu Astake, which sounds and eventually makes the film feel a bit like Sideways.

This film is something truly special. It leaves the audience longing for something more and thinking about it for long after the viewing is over. Does Don find what he sets out to find? You will have to find out for yourself. The final scenes are devastating, uneasy, and haunting. The director leaves so many clues and has such brilliant attention to detail that almost any theory of what eventually happens to Don could be legitimate. It is among the most subtly hilarious and quietly dramatic films in recent memory. It is so much like an Alexander Payne film, which is a great compliment coming from me. Jarmusch, however, develops his own style with his dark humor and observant approach to his astonishing ensemble cast. It is one of the very best films of 2005, and it deserves an audience a lot larger than it has. It is a wonderful film that will stay with you long after it is over.

Rating:

# 6 of 2005