Broken Flowers
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Movie Reviews of Broken Flowers
Movie Review: Reality TV should be this good
Summary: 5 Stars
For filmgoers who are looking for a funny Bill Murray movie like Caddy Shack, you will be disappointed. But if you can watch this film just for the pure joy of watching the collision of the baggage of the past meeting the present and the fun that ensues, then you will really appreciate this wonderful film.
Jarmusch unravels the illusion of "Don Juan" as Don faces the fact that his past lovers are either uncomfortable with him or he's uncomfortable with them and none of them are forthcoming with any information as to whether he's left a trail of kids behind.
Until your middle aged and reflect on the past and realize the choices you've made are what molded your present situation, AND see that perhaps you could have made better choices, then this film won't make any sense to you. Jarmusch beautifully photographs (and scripts) the accident that is 21st century "middle age" for a man who's fought his way through a quagmire of womens lib, empowerment, equality, the pill, feminism and every other end of the 20th century battle of the sexes that has left the modern male alone, childless and confused.
Jarmusch's style is to just points his camera at the characters and let this reality unfold... subtly - and it's unpredictable, funny, sad, scary, absurd, awkward and beautiful all at the same time.
Like reality, don't expect a happy or easy ending. By the time the final scene rolls, neither the view nor Don knows if he really HAS a son or not, if he really WANTS to have a son or not, or if every time he turns around and sees a young man about 19 years old - is he going to wonder... is that kid mine?
For all around fun and unexpected surprises in human dynamics, Jim Jarmusch is a modern master. Plus he scores huge on three major cinematic points in all his movies:
1. his choice of actors with their dramatic and textured faces is always surprising.
2. his choice of soundtrack is always hip and cool
3. he films the US roadside like no one else
And like Jarmusch's other films, Broken Flowers doesn't disappoint.
Movie Review: It was just a minor misunderstanding
Summary: 5 Stars
Let me just start off by saying that I'm getting just a wee-bit tired of all of these "HE DOESN'T FIND HIS SON, WHAT DOES IT ALL MEAN?!?!" complaints, is it seriously so hard to see behind the images and beneath the storyline?
and another thing, the whole "BILL MURRAY LOOKS LIKE A ZOMBIE, HE BARELY SHOWS ANY EMOTION!!", good grief people, his character is utterly miserable. I was fully unaware that when you feel like total s**t you're supposed to sing about it. come on, ladies and gentleman, you've got to be smarter than I give you credit for.
now, on to the film itself.
Written and Directed by (personal favorite) Jim Jarmusch, Broken Flowers is the story of an aging Don Juan (Murray), Don Johnston, "Johnston with a T", who, on the day he's left by his latest love, receives a letter in a pink envelope, informing him, on pink paper in red ink, that he has a son, the letter is unsigned and there is no return address.
Don's neighbor, the seemingly Raymond Chandler obsessed Winston (Jeffrey Wright) jumps at the bit quicker than Don does. Winston urges him to go on a trip to find the women who could possibly be the one who wrote the letter, Don refuses to make a list of the women who could be the mother, but does it anyway. Then Winston sets up an entire investigation for Don, car rentals, motels and everything, and again Don refuses to go. He leaves the next day.
What follows is a journey of discovery. Not who the mother of his son is, or if he even has a son, but the discovery that he, Don, is totally alone. This theme is enforced by the seemingly meaningless shots of Don in the car, by himself, and the final shot, where he stands in the middle of a street that seems as if it should be flourisihing with people, but infact he is alone.
The acting, all around, is top notch, as is everything else, from the soundtrack (Jarmusch knows how to compose a soundtrack better than Tarantino ever could.), the cinematography and the locations.
Ranks as the second best film of 2005, behind A History of Violence.
Movie Review: Surreal, Hilarious, but ultimatley Bitter-sweet Murray Flick
Summary: 5 Stars
First off, to those reviewers who accuse this film of being boring and meaningless, you're obviously not paying close enough attention. It is filled with symbolic imagery, talented performances, precise cinematography and editing, and has a genuinly melencholy, human story at its core. Bill Murray is in top form as an aging playboy who discovers he may have a son and sets out on a road trip to find him. Murray is subtley hilarious, yet at the same time more and more emotionally undone. He visits four of his old flames which have been determined the possible mothers of the mysterious son, whose mother sent Murray's character (Don) a letter. In the process we discover the shattered past of his youth and the endless string of possibilities that were squandered. It all ties up to an ambiguous, sudden, tragic ending in which we see Don standing alone in the midst of an empty street. This scene says about all about his characters past, present, and future in which he has really, truly, always been alone. Looking back on the picture and the strange, somewhat offbeat speed and movement of the film, (the order of events, connections of characters and people) it seems almost as if the whole thing was some sort of beautiful lucid dream. I mean, looking at the story line in the context of where Murray's character is in life (over the hill, and alone) wouldn't it stand to reason that he would start to feel a need for meaning and companionship in his life? Thus, wouldn't a son, a forgotten creation of life, be what he desperatly unconciously desires? There are uncanny connections between things and people, such as the letter which all the women of his past seem to relate to. Or the fact that the second to last scene is a guy in a car, driving past murray with the exact same music playing in his car as was the music Murray's character, Don had been constantly playing in his car. This is the sort of thing that would hypothetically happen in a dream, a point at which the character realizes he's been dreaming, and in Don's case, the dream has been his life. It is a very interesting and worthwhile film.Movie Review: Fantastic Film
Summary: 5 Stars
Is this film the most realistic I've ever seen? No. Is this film geared for the mainstream movie goer? No.
I am amzed at how people can suspend their disbelief while watching action movies with Arnold Schwarzenegger overcoming the impossible or even horror films (which I happen to be a fan of), but dismiss movies like Broken Flowers and Lost In Translation as being unrealistic. Here's a newsflash people...PEOPLE WATCH MOVIES TO ESCAPE FROM THE REAL WORLD. IT'S OK TO DO IT. IT DOESN'T MAKE YOU ANY LESS AN INTELLECTUAL TO DO SO.
Anyway...back to the film...
The plot synopsis is well outlined in other reviews, how ever slanted the reviews might be. My biggest selling point on this gem is Murray's ability to not over act or overstate certain emotions. To me, there is a sort of realism you can find in some of his most recent work. I'm not here to say the film is realistic, but Murray's acting is spot on here. And for anyone who wishes to lament Murray's older films...are you actually going to try and tell me films like Stripes and Ghostbusters were realistic? They were fine films. I happen to love Stripes, but realistic, it ain't.
Bill Murray is fantastic in this film. He flexes that same muscle that I first saw him display with the film Rushmore. Since then, Murray has made some fantastic films such as Lost In Translation and Life Aquatic. These are clearly all films that Bill Murray did because he wanted to. He knew these films wouldn't be blockbuster hits. He did these films because they were interesting to him. Luckily, there is an audience out here who appreciates these films.
I give Bill Murray the utmost respect because he isn't afraid to explore new territory as an actor. In fact, he seems to be one of the few who craves the challenges of new territory, and it's in that element that he truly shines.
Movie Review: Jeez.. the suburbs have changed!
Summary: 5 Stars
I saw this beautiful sleeper of a movie back to back with "A History of Violence". "Broken Flowers' was a perfect antidote to a cynical re-hashed Western about a 'gunslinger' revisited by trouble.
The sad thing is that so many people thought that "Violence" had very deep things to say about America. I think that Jim Jarmusch knows more about America than David Cronenberg, and I'm grateful.
"Broken Flowers", as others have remarked, has the character of a waking dream. Bill Murray's shipwrecked Don Juan emerges in the beginning of the film from a cave-like bachelor's lair and walks into the sunshine of real life, looking (as always) rumpled and frowsy and not entirely awake. Through a sequence of gorgeous days, he pursues the chimaera of an unknown son that he may have sired twenty years earlier. He makes a tour of old acquaintances, and realizes some bittersweet lessons about life, such as, "be careful what you wish for... that son who's looking for you may not be the idealized version of yourself that you would like him to be...(if he indeed does exist)."
The places that Murray visits seem like classic slices of Americana, archetypes that exist in our collective unconscious: the little yellow house with junk in the yard, the huge tomb-like McMansion where Murray finds himself being served a 'happy meal'.
I loved this movie! It's a movie populated with actresses and actors who are allowed to 'act their age'. It's got a great score, and a great look. It will make you feel good about life...life with its inevitable disappointments, still beautiful and still worth living.