Broken Flowers
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Movie Reviews of Broken Flowers
Movie Review: No soul, no self, no god
Summary: 5 Stars
Jarmusch is mushy at times but a limpid and clear mush of sorts. An old « bachelor », which means (typically American) an unmarried lady's man, is titillated by life : one more girl friend goes away, and a letter arrives from an old anonymous girl-firend announcing the existence and eventually popping up of a 19 year old son of his. He is dumb enough to get on the road to check his old girlfriends to try to find out the one who is playing with his nerves, because the idea of having a son is definitely trying on his nerves. And of course he ends up in a blind alley, or rather a set of five blind alleys all dead. That's Jarmush. These « bachelors » of the libertine generation of the 60s, 70s and 80s are just misfits when they reach the ripe age of sixty. They have a luxurious house, they have a good income, but they have nothing affective, nothing sentimental. They are a wasteland left on furrow for fifty years and there is like a crazy dream that maybe they would enjoy a son or a daughter, or whatever that could look stable till the final departure. Jarmush is a sentimental undertaker who buries even the slightest and smallest illusion we may have about a possible redemption in this world. We were abandoned a long time ago by all gods that we imagined existed and we find ourselves, soulless, selfless, godless, and so on, in other words in total « suffering » (Dukkha in Buddhist Pali) by lack and want of human sentiments. Jarmusch is the Buddhist of Hollywood.
Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, Université Paris Dauphine, Université Paris I Panthéon Sorbonne
Movie Review: The Great Hoax
Summary: 5 Stars
Great film of Bill Murray moping. Sort of like his Lost in Translation persona, or maybe even him in Rushmore. He's a middle-aged man in a track suit, he's had several women in his life. The day that one of them leaves him he gets a letter; he doesn't know which one of his ex-girlfriends it's from, but she says in the letter that she had his baby 20 years ago. With the help of his Ethiopian neighbour (cue opportunity to have Ethiopian jazz in the soundtrack) he works backwards and comes up with five names. So he goes to visit several of them to try and solve the "mystery." There's not much mystery, but there's an opportunity to film several episodes. The first one is the best - Sharon Stone, and her "daughter" Lolita, played by a magnetically horny Alexis Dziena. It goes downhill from there. A lot can happen to people in 20 years - some end up in loveless marriages with real estate developers, some become psychics, while others slum it as biker chicks. But life is long and good things can come of it if you're Bill Murray and you don't take things too seriously or get delusional about a son you may or may not have. There's always tomorrow. The film uses quite good songs in its soundtrack (including, briefly, Sleep), and the fantastic "There Is An End" by The Greenhornes with Holly Golightly. Great boogie woogie retro rock with cool old guitar plucking. Crazy, dad, crazy...Movie Review: Broken Flowers ~ Jim Jarmusch
Summary: 5 Stars
Broken Flowers~ Jim Jarmusch is a parody of American life and shows the "crazy" animal communicator, the rich and stiff upper class, the redneck family and the white trash family. Bill Murray perfectly plays the role of the old millionaire, living in his dark mansion. The women that he meet to find his son are all meant to show a portrait of America. First we get to meet Laura and her daughter Lolita (whom tries to get him in bed with her from the first scene and in one scene walks around completely nude talking on her cellphone). The second woman that he meets, Dora, is supposed to be the upper class wife whom lives in an " antiseptic McMansion" and the food they eat is a riot. it is rice, some fish and some carrots and they are all made in an "artsy" yet "clean" way. The other two women also show a portrait of the American, Carmen (the quirky pet comunicator) and Penny (the redneck woman). The movie does not miss anything like small details such as the expensive dog treats at Carmens place, the "beaded" cell phone of Lolita (Yes, she plays the same role as in Nabakov, and I started chuckling to myself when she mentioned her named), the piles of rusted cars in Pennys frontyard and many other details that desribe America in a nutshell. I love this movie and would warmly recommend it to anyone that loves well made movies.Movie Review: Sad Man Learns He's Alone on His Island
Summary: 5 Stars
A sad and funny film, Broken Flowers features Bill Murray as Don Johnston, a disaffected, lonely playboy who, with the encouragement of his neighbor Winston, goes on a quest to find four ex-lovers who might tell him about an alleged son that Don fathered nineteen years earlier. Confronting his past, he realizes his limitations and shortcomings as a man who, too scared and selfish to love, is afflicted with an aching hole in his heart.
The film's plot device is amazingly simple. Once he agrees to search for the mother of his alleged son, the film is broken down into four episodes, each visit to a former girlfriend more painful than the previous one. And we see our Don Juan crushed with a sense of a life wasted on caprices and selfish, adolescent passion.
The film is hilarious if you are fond, like I am, of Bill Murray's priceless expressions of disgruntled cynicism and irony. There is nothing forced or contrived in the film--its plot, its pacing, its themes. The film is assured and confident in what it has to say and as such has nothing in common with the predictable films that try to overwhelm you every second.
One of the major themes of this film is the fear of attachment and as such I would compare it favorably to two other films--You Can Count On Me and The Station Agent.
Movie Review: Past, present, future
Summary: 5 Stars
Though some women may find this film mere male reverie, there is a deeper story told here.
Did you ever wonder what has become of one's old romantic flames, now long gone?
How have they changed, how have you changed?
The past sometimes even reaches out and thrusts itself upon us.
Bill Murray's odyssey in the Jim Jarmusch film "Broken Flowers" takes us on an exploration into this past world. The vehicle is his quest to find the truth about a possible unknown illegitimate child. And it makes us ponder our own relationships - their durability, their place in the context of our finite lives, and the role of continuity beyond.
Along the way we peer into the many forms of Americana, while sexual nostalgia occasionally bursts into the present.
Perhaps more cerebral than emotional, and with excellent ensemble acting, though not quite a tour-de force of acting or photography, nevertheless the resultant cleverly-crafted and evocative film is a soft-humoured dreamy journey into these mind recesses.
Surely that's what good film is about.
Four stars.