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The RottenTomatoes web site reports that about nine out of 10 of the nation's film critics have recommended this film as opposed
to about seven out of ten of the film lovers who have seen it in a theater. Since this film is currently only playing in art
houses, the people who are seeing it are more of the highbrow sort. It would seem that they disagree rather strongly with
its exalted rating as given to us by the film critics.
A number of people have asked me when I was going to see the film as they were interested in what I had to say about it.
A few mentioned that they had been "perplexed" or "puzzled" by the movie, but the far larger majority
told me that they "hated" the film, and those are the actual words that they have used to describe it.
I don't hate "Broken Flowers," but neither do I love the movie. I love the performances, but I found the story
to be illogical and the characters to be mostly unpleasant. I am ambivalent about this film as it is a "On the one hand
... but on the other hand ..." kind of movie. I certainly have no desire to see it again, but it does have its strong
points, chief among them the fine performances and the atmospheric cinematography.
Knowing beforehand that the film is open ended, I went into the movie viewing it as an intellectual challenge. I wanted
to see if I could sort out everything to my satisfaction. I have, but I will not promote my theory here as it has no more
validity that any theory that those of you who have also seen the movie may care to advance.
Bill Murray, either by choice or by the fact that the parts seem to have been written with only him in mind, seems to
be falling into a typecast mold of minimalist acting where he says little but a tilt of his head or a twitch of his eyebrow
may speak volumes.
He IS very good at this, but at the end of the day I am not a big fan of a character who speaks little and discloses even
less about himself and what motivates him in life. I don't think that we should always have to be an armchair psychologist
when we go into a theater.
This minimalist acting on Murray's part might be called the "Wes Anderson treatment" as it seems to have been
originated by that director in the 2001 movie, "The Royal Tenenbaums," in which Bill Murray had a minor part. I
did not like this movie (and my many reasons for disliking it can be found in my review of that movie in the archive section
of my web site).
Bill Murray later starred in Sophia Coppola's 2003 movie, "Lost in Translation," which, while flawed, had much
to recommend it. At least the Murray character was humorous and likable with his wry wit juxtaposed against the oddball circumstance
of his being a loner in a foreign country (Japan) and happily falling in with someone as lovely as the character played by
the ethereally beautiful and sensuous Scarlett Johansson.
Wes Anderson then followed up with another Bill Murray vehicle in 2004, the lamentable, "The Life Aquatic with Steve
Zissou," which flopped at the box office. Feeling this movie to be another oddball Murray and Anderson pairing like "The
Royal Tenenbaums," I admit to not even bothering to see it.
"Broken Flowers" is another outing that stars the same kind of understated Murray performance as in those earlier
movies even though Jim Jarmusch instead of Anderson or Coppola wrote and directed this film.
The role of Jim Johnston has Bill Murray written all over it and must have been written with him in mind. All of his earlier
roles of this type have been distilled and condensed into this new version. You may not be pleased with this Murray redux
or Murray squared or what have you, but I have no complaints with his performance, only with the character.
The film critics love this stuff as it is like a French film of the Sixties. All style but an annoying substance that
passes for pseudo-intellectual intelligence and wit. I can buy part way into this, but when it is all said and done, "Broken
Flowers" leaves me asking for more. More story, better defined characters, and especially more interesting people.
We all have problems in our lives and I don't need to see Bill Murray define a new version of it, especially when this
poor, stupid schnook has it all and yet he is clueless, boring, and doesn't know what he wants to do with his life.
While there are moments of brilliance here, there are also elements that are maddening and preposterous beyond belief.
The first preposterous element would be the simple question as to what in heaven's name did any woman, much less many
women, find to be attractive in this lifeless, cheerless blob of a man? Murray's character, Don Johnston, is apparently a
Don Juan who has bedded women all his life when the guy is as ugly as a wall board and cannot even carry a conversation. You
see very little of the sly wit here that at least pleases us in "Lost in Translation."
Any man can be attractive if he has magnetism and intelligence and humor, but Murray's Don Johnston has none of this.
This man is the very definition of a nonentity with his phlegmatic personality. In real life, Bill Murray, the actor, has
charm and style, but in this movie his character does not.
Secondly, what person of a supposedly sane mind would drop in on former girlfriends of 20 years past under the dubious
pretext that one of them may be the mother of their 19 year old son? And when he reaches the home of each, he looks for small
clues but has nothing much to say to renew their past friendship, much less saying anything to get any of them to open up.
As one remarks, "You have a hidden agenda."
His visits raise far more questions than answers and is very unfair to the women he visits. He really upsets their lives
by showing up. Some of the women hate him and all are made very uncomfortable by his sudden reappearance. Well, how would
YOU feel if this happened to you?
All I am left with is the question as to what made them love him, if that is the operable word, in the first place 20
years before when he was just as ugly, probably about as uncommunicative, and surely wasn't close to being rich like he is
now?
To call "Broken Flowers" a comedy stretches the definition of that word beyond comprehension. Oh, sure, there
are three or so quite funny quips that the deadpan Johnston throws off during the movie, but that is about all there is. He
is so depressing a personality that I do not find his performance, as impressive as it is, to be very humorous to watch. It
is not very funny to watch a guy act like he is a six foot tall Prozac pill with arms and legs.
Bill Murray gives an understated performance of a man who has made it all in computers and now seems to have lost the
will to live. He just exists. Why? We don't know. Is he bored with life? Does he seem to regret the mistakes that he has made
over the years? Is he bored with the material wealth that he now possesses? Does he feel a sense of loss of direction now
that he has sold his company to others and only has the material benefits from that sale to sustain him? We never find out.
We have to fill in the blanks here.
We know nothing about Don Johnston, the man. He certainly doesn't enjoy his wealth, as he sits around all day long lounging
on the living room couch watching classic movies or listening to music.
He is so boring that his current girlfriend, Sherry (Julie Delpy, "Before Sunset"), leaves him with the parting
observation that he "treats her like a mistress even though he isn't married." In short, he is never there for her
either.
He hates being called a "Don Juan," and yet he watches one of the classic black and white movies based on the
Mozart opera, "Don Giovanni," on his television. He listens to an aria from the same Mozart opera until his neighbor
and buddy, Winston (Jeffrey Wright), changes the CD and puts in some funky music instead. This pleases him, but the truth
of the matter is that he is just too lazy to get off the couch and change the CD for himself.
Practically all of the women that he meets think that he is introducing himself as "Don Johnson," the sexy star
of the old television series, "Miami Vice." Sorry to disappoint. He has to correct them quickly with his reply,
"No, it's JohnsTon with a 'T.'"
One day his world is turned upside down, if that isn't over dramatizing the situation, when he receives an anonymous pink,
typewritten letter, ostensibly from a former lover, telling him that she had his son nineteen years before and that his son
might drop in on him if he is still living at this same address.
Does he hire a detective to check out all his old girlfriends to see if any of them have a nineteen year old son? No.
Does he remain at home in the hope that his son will show up? No.
He decides that this is the perfect time to indulge himself in a cross country trek to visit the five women who he remembers
as having been sexually active with some 20 years before. Well, that's real smart. Maybe he will be gone when the supposed
son shows up.
Actually, the decision is not his, but is that of Winston (Jeffrey Wright), his next door neighbor and probably his only
friend. Winston and his loving family are the only characters in this movie that I would have been happy to have seen more
of. Please show me a movie about them!
Don Johnston made a fortune in computers, but he doesn't even own one. Winston is married, has a bunch of kids, and works
three jobs to keep everything together. One of his jobs is writing detective stories, and this typewritten letter on pink
stationery intrigues him. He has his detective hat on for this clue. Who types letters anymore with computer processors now
doing this job?
Winston has a computer which is crashing often enough that Don is constantly on call to repair the bugs, which he is only
too happy to do for a cup of black coffee and a chance to play with the kids. The never married Johnston is intrigued that
there might be a miniature version of himself out there somewhere and Jeffrey gets him to write down a list of all of the
women with whom he was sexually active some 20 years before.
There are five women and Winston does an internet search on each of them. Sadly, one has died, but he then plots a trip
covering all of the points to where the other four women live and makes airplane reservations, car rentals and prints out
MapQuest maps of all the addresses so that Don will have an easy time of it when he lands in another strange city to look
up another one of the women.
His first trip is to visit Laura (Sharon Stone), who lives in an modest ranch house. She isn't home, but her teenaged
daughter (played by Alexis Dziena) is, and she introduces herself as "Lolita." She also introduces her naked body
when she walks back into the living room to retrieve a ringing cell phone.
Laura soon returns and she turns out to be the only woman of the four who is pleased to see him again. This is most likely
due to the fact that her husband, a race car driver, had been killed in a flaming crash and she now lives alone with her daughter.
Later at dinner both she and her daughter exhibit their lack of education by being unaware of the Nabokov novel and the
movie that introduced the name and the concept of a "Lolita" to the world. Lolita clearly lives down to her name
as she makes it more than obvious that she would welcome a tryst with Don, who ends up sleeping with Laura that night. Why
he is so attractive to both women I will never know.
His next MapQuest journey finds him driving through a new development in a hilly area where every house looks alike and
all of the lawns are well tended with each having a single, lonely boulder placed in the front for questionable visual effect.
Dora (Francis Conroy) is welcoming, but troubled. She lives in one of the larger homes and it turns out that she is a
realtor and her husband is the developer of this project composed of prefabricated homes. She hands Don a pink calling card.
Her husband, Ron (Christopher McDonald), soon returns and his initial suspicion turns into a mask of cheer common to a born
salesman. Don is invited to what turns out to be an unendurable dinner with him sitting quietly at the end of the table like
an amorphous blob. He does absolutely nothing to calm the painfully troubled waters.
Don's next tour takes him through an attractively hilly and wooded area until he stumbles onto a home with an office off
to the side. A large sign introduces us to a "Dr. Carmen Krachowski, animal communicator." A man walks out talking
to his rabbit proclaiming that he won't do this again.
Inside, an officious and unctuous office manager (Chloë Sevigney, "Melinda and Melinda") eyes him with ill-concealed
suspicion when he introduces himself as not having a pet, but instead being an "old friend" of Carmen's.
Carmen (Jessica Lange) is equally troubled and suspicious. It is clear that her memories of their relationship are not
happy. No, she does not read animal minds (like a Dr. Doolittle), she says, but she can understand what they are saying when
they talk to her. She has three published books lying about on the table to evidence her expertise in this field. Portraits
of pink flowers hang on the wall. Her pet cat also eyes Don with suspicion and tells Carmen that "You (Don) have a hidden
agenda."
Of the three women so far, Carmen offers almost no chance of having been a mother to a now nineteen year old son. The
atmosphere is thick with anger and suspicion and Carmen belatedly but thankfully leaves to attend to the needs of another
client. The office assistant escorts Don to the door and her protectiveness of her boss smacks subtly of an interest more
than job related.
His final destination is to what appears to be an area like the foothills of the Appalachian mountains on the East Coast
where he is to search for Penny (Tilda Swinton). His map skills fail him and he ends up lost. A passing truck filled with
redneck hillbillies slows down and they grunt the direction of the road before they speed off.
Penny's ramshackle home in a field more properly may be called a junkyard as motorcycles in various states of repair lie
about with two men, one her husband, hard at work trying to fix them. Car parts and trash are everywhere, including a broken
pink IBM Selectric typewriter lying in the grass. Don is directed to a worn screen door. They keep their ears open for signs
of trouble, which soon comes when Penny screams at Don after he asks her if she has a son.
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