Broken
Flowers is a good film. Broken Flowers isn't a masterpiece.
Director Jim Jarmusch has done better (Stranger Than Paradise
and Mystery Train). The problem with many art house critics
is that they sometimes view good films and masterpieces as the
same thing. I sometimes think the final verdict of their reviews
are decided as soon as the cast and crew are announced. You can
almost see picture them thinking "What? Jarmusch, Murray
and Wright? WOW! I can't wait." Only a "fan"
would say this movie is little more than mediocre.
Character driven films such as Broken Flowers can only
become great when they introduce the world to truly great characters.
I just didn't find Murray's Don Johnston all that interesting
or appealing. Murray's trademark stoicism that he utilized with
such skill and effect in Lost In Translation does not
serve him well here. Personally, I found him annoying at times.
Don is a man staring down the later years of his life and he's
just dying to feel something. He's rich, but he does nothing.
He has a cute young girlfriend (Julie Delpy) who he handles with
nonchalant ambivalence and he has one single friend, his virile
next door neighbor Winston, played by the great Jeffrey Wright.
Enter an anonymous pink letter, which informs him that he has
a child, a son, somewhere in this world.
With Winston's help, Don narrows the possibilities of women who
could have sent him this letter down to five. So, he embarks on
an odyssey of sorts to find this woman and hopefully his son.
In order of sex appeal, the women he visits are Sharon Stone,
Tilda Swinton, Jessica Lange and Frances Conroy. Oh, and there's
a dead one. Surprisingly, Stone's scenes are the most enjoyable.
Her character, Laura, is actually the only woman who actually
seems as if she and done have a history. There is an odd sexual
chemistry with Stone and Murray and their moments onscreen are
pretty funny. Actually, Laura has a nymph daughter, aptly name
Lolita (Alexa Dziena), whose immature flirtations with Don provide
the biggest laughs of the film. But, it's kind of all downhill
from that first visit. The laughs get weaker and weaker and the
search for the son becomes more and more fruitless. I didn't even
care if he found this kid after a while, because these women were
absolutely mortifying. Lange's character was a crazy ass pet communicator,
who was clearly getting it on with her young receptionist (indie
whore Chloe Sevingy), while Swinton was the poorest of poor white
trash.
If you want to appear hip and happening, you should go see this
movie and tell everyone you loved it. If you want to be intelligently
contrary and appear to be smarter than everyone, go see this movie
and tell everyone it's not that great. That's what I did. It's
the right thing to do.
