mesa legend

August 22, 2005
FEATURES
‘Broken Flowers’ breaks into mainstream

Derk Harron
Mesa Legend

It’s always awkward to run into an ex-girlfriend or ex-boyfriend, but Broken Flowers takes those uncomfortable minutes of our lives and expands it to four ill at ease, laugh out loud sequences that make up Jim Jarmusch’s latest film.

The main character Don Johnston (Bill Murray) is a successful middle-aged businessman that has been a bachelor all his life.

Although Don has always been able to woo women, he hasn’t cared to hold on to a relationship for any length of time.

His lonely existence is interrupted when he receives a pink letter from an anonymous former lover informing him that he has a 19-year-old son who may now be looking for his father.

Don is urged to investigate who the mystery mother might be by his closest friend and neighbor, Winston (Jeffrey Wright), an amateur sleuth and family man.

Hesitant to travel at all, Don nonetheless embarks on a cross-country trek in search of clues from four former flames (Frances Conroy, Jessica Lange, Sharon Stone, and Tilda Swinton).

Unannounced visits to each of these unique women hold new surprises for Don as he haphazardly confronts both his past and, consequently, his present.

From the beginning of Broken Flowers, Jarmucsh really focuses on how isolated Don is through elongated scenes of him in center frame surrounded in his abandoned environment.

Jarmucsh is also not afraid to show the repetition of traveling as Don makes his way to each previous lady friend.

The repetition in the movie truly shows a more realistic look on Don’s character that could relate with anyone’s life.

Even though the audience seems to be watching the same view of Don driving or flying to his next destination, it gives them the perspective through Don’s eyes.

The near duplicated sequences feel as if they are intermissions between scenes making the viewer participate in Don’s seclusion from everyone regardless if he or she likes it or not.

Moves like these are risky for a director, because it can slow down the picture.

In Broken Flowers however, the slow down appears to work perfectly in building up anticipation for every visit to another ex.

Bill Murray does such a good job of reacting to each new situation he encounters by doing little or nothing at all.

Murray is such a character himself that he doesn’t need to react fanatically to get your attention.

One move of an eyebrow or delayed reaction made by Murray could make the audience laugh hysterically.

Even though Broken Flowers might seem to at a very slow pace, most anyone could relate to some of the themes that are revealed.

Moviegoers may not identify with the major topic of getting an unsigned letter with information of a long lost child, but it’s the little gestures from the characters that will capture your friends, your family, and maybe even yourself.