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A fan favorite at the 2005 Cannes Film Festival, Broken Flowers took the Jury Grand Prize and generated a great deal of positive buzz. Cannes recognition has often been bestowed upon iconoclastic auteur Jim Jarmusch, who has been a frequent participant the past twenty years beginning with Stranger Than Paradise, but this film could signal the beginning of a beautiful (but understated) relationship. Kurosawa had Mifune and Scorsese has De Niro, and now Jarmusch has Bill Murray, whose performance in Lost in Translation now seems overly animated when compared to his wonderfully deadpanned character in Broken Flowers. Jarmusch's relatable film may still be too quirky for Oscar voters, but Murray may finally receive his golden statuette.
Murray plays confirmed bachelor/couch potato Don Johnston, who receives an anonymous pink letter just when his latest girlfriend (Julie Delpy) is moving out. She's fed up with the aging "Don Juan" who "treats her like a mistress even though he's not married." Offering little resistance, he doesn't even have the energy to open the pink envelope after she leaves—inertly plopping back on the couch and inevitably crashing out. This is clearly a man whose life has been set on the pause button of his remote—his best years behind him. In contrast, Don's next door Ethiopian neighbor Winston (Jeffrey Wright) is a devoted family man (with five children) and energetic—his current interest being crime sleuthing through Internet research.
The anonymous letter reveals that Don has fathered a son 20 years ago and warns that the 19-year may be currently tracking him down. While this intrigues Don, he's not going to move any further than his couch, but Winston springs into action—examining the pink letter under a microscope, getting Don to list his past flings from that period, and hitting the Internet. By the next morning, Winston has booked an entire itinerary, complete with Northwest Airlines flights around the country, hotel reservations, rental cars, and printed MapQuest guides to locate four candidate former flames. The fifth possibility is scratched since she's now dead. The reluctant Don is sent on his "pink" mission—to figure out the sender of the letter by offering pink flowers to the women as he visits.
Since each relationship had ended badly, there's no guarantee that any of the visits will pan out, but they allow a structure that is ideally suited for Murray and writer/director Jarmusch. Murray reigns supreme as the expressionless deadpan, who brings knowing insight and wit by doing very little outside subtle face ticks and eye expressions. The separate encounters with the four women combine extended Saturday Night Live skit formats with Jarmusch's Coffee and Cigarettes sketches, providing fascinating character studies that play off Murray's passivity and incomparable dry humor.
1. Laura (Sharon Stone) organizes closets for a living while her daughter Lolita (Alexis Dziena) literally lives out her literary namesake. Laura's NASCAR husband went up in a “wall of flame,” and she's obviously still very much in need of male companionship.
2. Once a flower child, Dora (Frances Conroy) has settled down with husband Dan (Chris Bauer) as a not so free spirited realtor of pre-fab homes. Hers is the saddest of the four vignettes.
3. Carmen (Jessica Lange) has abandoned her original plan to be a lawyer, has divorced, and has published three books with a thriving business in “animal communication” (a real life Dr. Doolittle). Before you think this another wacky California style sham, her cat lets her know that Don has a "hidden agenda."
4. In the most hostile encounter, Penny (a barely recognizable Tilda Swinton) lives in a trashy rural setting, surrounded by scary motorcycle riding guys.
In the end, the film is all about Don. We're not convinced that he becomes totally transformed, but Murray supplies subtle signs that he has begun to change. He wisely doesn't continue to pursue his former Don Juan persona, but that was evident from his initial reactions in the opening scene. It's more of a quiet empathy that he evidences towards his former flames, and even more telling when he encounters a young man who may or may not be his son. Both Murray and Jarmusch avoid sentiment at all costs, but they also demonstrate that they would try to do the right thing as father figures. And this script, specifically designed for Murray, delivers the goods.
Broken Flowers won't satisfy mainstream audiences looking for easy resolution, but Jarmusch rightfully refuses to make the films that Hollywood demands. To have all the loose ends tie up neatly here would make the film ring false, as it satisfies the palate with its quirky character. Jarmusch may even reach a wider audience this time by utilizing Murray's inimitable skills; he even moves the camera this time around. Unmistakably from the Jarmusch canon, the entire film revolves around Murray. And that is enough.
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