Broken Flowers -- Rhinotainment

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Date Posted: 19:48:12 09/01/05 Thu
Author: Dog of War
Subject: Broken Flowers

Jim Jarmusch is a director who is very much a matter of taste - people seem to either love him, or hate him. I am firmly in the love column, as I've yet to not like one of his films, and Broken Flowers may very well be my favorite yet (though Ghost Dog is still very high on my list).

I'm torn about Bill Murray in the film, because on the one hand, his character in Broken Flowers is one that he's pretty much played repeatedly over the last several years: a man who has wealth and success, but who is lonely, miserable and takes no joy whatsoever out of life; on the other hand, there is simply no one in the entire world who can play this archetype as well as Bill Murray, and despite the fact that I've now seen him do it in Rushmore, Lost in Translation, The Life Aquatic and now Broken Flowers, I never get tired of it.

The basic story is that Bill Murray is an aging womanizer, who receives a letter from an ex-girlfriend saying that soon after they broke up she found out she was pregnant. Their son is now 20 years old, and on a cross country trek to find his father. The letter is unsigned and unaddressed, so Murray narrows the possible writers down to 4 and goes to visits each one.

Being a Jarmusch film, Broken Flowers is made up of a lot of awkward silences and lingering shots of seemingly nothing. Fortunately, no one does awkward silence like Bill Murray, and even while not saying or doing anything, he is often incredibly funny and expressive. There really isn't a bad performance in this movie (even Sharon Stone is good), but the one who comes closest to stealing the show from Murray is Jeffrey Wright as his mystery obsessed next door neighbor who convinces him to go on his journey in the first place.

Like I said, if you don't like the style of Jim Jarmusch's movies, you're probably going to be bored to tears by Broken Flowers, but I'd definitely recommend it for people who like this style of movie, or anymore who's a Bill Murray fan and just want to see him doing what he does best.

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Replies:

Jeffrey Wright -- The Rhino, 16:57:13 09/03/05 Sat
- Re: Jeffrey Wright -- Dog of War, 17:37:18 09/03/05 Sat