Broken Flowers
Dir: Jim Jarmusch USA / France 2005 106 mins 15A
Starring: Bill
Murray, Jeffrey Wright, Sharon Stone, Frances Conroy, Jessica Lange, Tilda
Swinton, Julie Delpy
A man who has
grown old rather than matured, Don Johnston (Bill Murray) retains an adolescent
belief that if he loses the love of one woman another will arrive to take her
place. The departure of girlfriend Sherry (Julie Delpy) coincides with the
arrival of a mysterious pink letter purporting to be from an old lover and
claiming that he has a teenage son who is now looking to meet his father. The
letter is conveniently unsigned and equally convenient is the fact that
Johnston’s neighbour Winston (Jeffrey Wright) is an amateur sleuth.
Fears that this may turn into another existential farce are soon put to rest as
Winston quickly tracks down Johnston’s relevant lady friends from 20 years ago
and sends him on a road trip to confront his past. Naturally, there’s no way he
could simply phone up and ask them. There wouldn’t be a film then.
The scenario also allows some sharp moments from a stellar collection of women
as Don meets Laura (Sharon Stone) and her daughter who proves to be Lolita
(Alexis Dziena) by name and by nature. Frances Conroy (Six Feet Under) brings a
wistful regret to her role as Dora, a child of the hippy sixties who is now a
real estate agent living in antiseptic affluence with her husband. Murray’s
Tootsie co-star Jessica Lange seems to be turning into Gena Rowlands before
our very eyes as she plays animal counsellor Carmen and Tilda Swinton has a
short but feisty scene as Penny.
More conventional than the material Jarmusch has created over the past 15 years,
Broken Flowers is also far more accessible and entertaining. He still has
a great talent for precisely observed moments from life that ring with truth and
are like bubbling tributaries that feed into a river of contented chuckles. ©
Screen International
Before graduating from
New York University’s school of film, Jarmusch decided to drop out of the
program and funnel his scholarship funds into his first feature. This first
film, Permanent Vacation introduced audiences to the deadpan style that he would
later develop in Stranger Than Paradise and Down by Law. Following years of
artistic success and critical acclaim in the American independent film
community, he achieved a new level of mainstream notoriety with his far-East
philosophy-themed Western movie set in New Jersey, Ghost Dog - The Way of the
Samurai, starring Forest Whitaker. His last major project was the series of
short films called Coffee and Cigarettes.