Broken Flowers

Broken Flowers (Director: Jim Jarmusch)

Jarmusch is one of those guys that film geeks worship; I've seen only one other of his films--the very odd and unenjoyable Johnny Depp movie Dead Man. There are other vaguely familiar titles on his resume, like Ghost Dog: Way of the Samurai, but ultimately, I wouldn't know what I was talking about in mentioning them.

Bill Murray has entered into a comfortable slot in his career playing the divorced or troubled-marriage or midlife-crisis type, beginning with Rushmore and moving into Lost in Translation and even last year's The Life Aquatic. What's great, though, is that these aren't the same performances or characters, they are merely variations on the type.

In Broken Flowers, Murray expresses more through his face--and even subtler than in Translation--than with words. He plays "aging Don Juan" Don Johnston, getting left by yet another unsatisfied girlfriend (Julie Delpy), who receives a letter in the mail from one of his former (unnamed) flames informing him that twenty years ago she gave birth to his son, and his son is looking for him. His neighbor Winston (Jeffrey Wright), the anti-Don with three jobs, five kids, and the perfect wife, has a hobby in what amounts to internet sleuthing, and he hopes to be able to discern which woman could have sent him the letter. Winston seems more intent on finding the woman than Don is, but it's only because Don doesn't want to admit his curiosity. Winston does the work, then Don pursues the leads, going on a trip around the country.

What's alternately fascinating and frustrating is how Don goes about this quest. He never mentions to these women why he's visiting them. The first is Laura (Sharon Stone) who still is a wild child and has a daughter, Lolita (Alexis Dziena), who plays the role of her name to perfection. The second is Dora (Frances Conroy of "Six Feet Under"), who is married to the ultra-boorish and boring Ron (Christopher McDonald), the third is animal communicator Carmen (Jessica Lange), and then the last is the biker-chick Penny (Tilda Swinton). All of them have various clues that they might be the one who sent the letter.

Of course, in a movie like this, it's not important whether he finds the woman or the son or not. It's all about how the character reacts to something that is new to his life. It's hard to make a movie like this, since finding the son or the woman or both might seem anticlimactic, but then if the filmmaker doesn't pay off with answers then the audience might leave unsatisfied. Of course, I will not divulge what Jarmusch decides here. Just know that the movie is worth seeing for Wright and Murray's performances. It does get a little repetitive, but the visits to Laura and Penny resonate the most, for different reasons. An interested viewer is also going to like this for how Don reacts to the ancillary characters like Lolita, Carmen's secretary (Chloe Sevigny), a wandering young man (Mark Webber), and a couple of others--they are as (or more) telling to the character as his interviews with the possible mothers.

Certainly to be at least an honorable mention at the end of the year.