Flowers bloom and wilt just as people grow and age emotionally over time. How a character starts one way and is changed fundamentally in the end is at the heart of Jim Jarmusch’s latest character study, Broken Flowers. It features a pared down performance by comedian/actor Bill Murray, and it may well be his best role to date.
A successful computer entrepreneur and bachelor, Don Johnston (Murray), receives an anonymous letter from a former lover which reveals that he had a child out of wedlock and that the now nineteen year old son may try to contact him. When his current girlfriend, Sherry (Julie Delpy), breaks up with him, Johnston’s neighbor, Winston (Jeffrey Wright), encourages him to make a list of all his girlfriends from that period of time to figure out who the mother may be. As the list is reduced to four (Sharon Stone Frances Conroy, Jessica Lange, and Tilda Swinton), Winston sends a reluctant Johnston on a quest for the truth. Clues abound as Johnston attempts to query each woman to find the connection to the letter. Past and present feelings come welling to the surface, some them pleasant and some painful. Johnston must endure his lumps as he awkwardly tries to obtain any inkling of truth from his mysterious letter writer. There are red herrings too along the way as anticipated resolutions give way to disappointment and emptiness. Or does it? What is the truth and what is reality? These are the sort of questions that crop up during the trip to the end.
The film opens with the departing Sherry telling Johnston that “you’re never going to change.” That is the beginning of a kind of human experiment of travel and reconnecting with fond memories and old wounds. This special road trip film also works as one of Winston’s mystery novels. Only in this case, it’s one big mystery of life. When Murray’s Johnston begins his mission, he is an inert, emotionally spent, world-weary baby boomer. Director Jarmusch, who has marched to his own drummer, has always done personal, character driven pieces (Stranger than Paradise). He does a great job of inhabiting his world with disparate people who don’t always have happy endings. Jarmusch displays a clean, accessible eye for film composition, and his visuals can be striking and supportive of the emptiness Johnston must feel. Although the film appears plot driven, it is most certainly people driven as it explores relationships. His use of offbeat songs and musical score are good counterpoints to an intimate story.
The screenplay, also written by Jarmusch, is lean, yet poignantly effective, a kind of ‘less is more’ scenario. Such humorous lines as when Murray’s character complains, “I’m a stalker in a Taurus,” generate some fine moments. It is ironic that after all these years, Murray has developed into a bona fide dramatic actor whose comedic sensibilities only serve to accent rather than detract from the story. Perhaps he should have waited to the redo the somber material of The Razor’s Edge which he bravely tackled immediately following the successes of Caddyshack and Meatballs. It’s great to see him explore the subtle side of comedy and drama. He has mastered every nuance and economy of expression and is essentially toning his act down to a minimalist level even more so than in Lost in Translation. At times even his lack of reaction says more than words literally could ever say.
The actresses acquit themselves splendidly. We see too little of Delpy (Before Sunset) and Chloe Sevigny (who portrays a receptionist). Tilda Swinton is also too brief but extremely effective in a change of pace role. Frances Conroy (Six Feet Under) has a more substantive part as a repressed realtor. Sharon Stone looks fantastic and an aging Lange still has the acting chops that produced multiple Oscar nods in the past. (Trivia buffs will note this marks the second film featuring both Lange and Murray who previously excelled in Tootsie.) Speaking of Oscar, it would be a crime not to recognize Murray’s measured, controlled performance. Special mention should go to Wright in an amusing supporting role.
As for the ending, let’s just say that Murray’s character has seen all the former girlfriends with varying results and his suspicions that his son is closing in on him may be realized. These events place him at a crossroads of life. It is not an easy resolution to the film as it will not easily conform to standard plotlines. This is where the film deviates from the norm and this is where its theme potentially comes full circle. While it may be Jarmusch’s most accessible film thus far, it contains a cipher conclusion for the audience to interpret. So caught up are we in discovering the past, that we miss the point of the film-it’s all about self discovery. Despite the ending, which will separate the sophisticates from pop audiences, the film is nearly perfect up to that point for all. Those looking for happy, pat endings will be befuddled. The journey is the most important thing, and perceptive viewers will realize the ending tells more than meets the eye. I smell a sleeper here.
***1/2 of **** stars
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