Review: Broken Flowers (** 1/2)

BROKEN FLOWERS
A film review by Steve Rhodes

Copyright 2005 Steve Rhodes



RATING (0 TO ****): ** 1/2



Forget everything you've heard about BROKEN FLOWERS. Forget all of those
critics' raves about it being a masterpiece and Bill Murray's minimalist
performance being a brilliant successor to his great work in LOST IN
TRANSLATION, one of my favorite films. BROKEN FLOWERS, which has as much
padding as any package delivered from FedEx, succeeds in spite of Murray's
non-performance rather than because of his work in the movie. The film's
joys are slight and derive mainly from the story's baffling mystery and from
some nicely quirky supporting performances.



In LOST IN TRANSLATION, Murray played a guy suffering from jet lag and the
disorientation caused by a foreign land, and his expressions and reactions
in LOST IN TRANSLATION had enough variety to be believable. But in THE LIFE
AQUATIC WITH STEVE ZISSOU and again here in BROKEN FLOWERS, Murray, with a
Zen-like dedication, turns himself into something with all of the emotional
warmth and stoic glare of a statue.



You're likely to have real trouble suspending disbelief since the movie's
central premise is that Murray's character, Don Johnston, is a Don Juan-type
of individual who has slept with so many different women that he has trouble
recalling them all. I ask you women. How often you have been inclined to
have a fling with a man who barely speaks or even acknowledges your
presence -- one who idles away all of his time staring off into space?



The story concerns the search for Don's long lost son. In the beginning, he
gets an unsigned letter on pink stationary that tells him that he had a son
twenty years ago and that this son has gone looking for his father.
Although it's hard to believe that Don has a best buddy, he does. His name
is Winston, played cutely by Jeffrey Wright. Winston, an internet sleuth,
finds the four living girlfriends of Don's from twenty years ago. Only
because Winston insists, Don goes to find them and see if any of them might
be the writer of the letter. One turns out to be a closet-organizer (Sharon
Stone) with a daughter aptly named Lolita (Alexis Dziena), another is a real
estate agent with the personality of a rock (Frances Conroy), another is an
"animal communicator" (Jessica Lange) and one is a bitter biker (Tilda
Swinton).



The movie is engaging solely because we become curious as to whether the
typewritten letter is a hoax, written by Winston, by Don's latest
ex-girlfriend (Julie Delpy) or perhaps by Don himself. The movie makes a
point to tell us that Don is very wealthy because of his work in computers
but that he has no computer in his house. Somehow, given the bizarreness of
the story, it seems unlikely that any of the four girlfriends he goes to
interview will actually prove to be the infamous writer of the missive.



The ending has been described by some as brilliant and others as maddening.
In the context of this movie, it is about what I expected. And speaking of
expectations, my wife, who was really looking forward to this film, couldn't
find enough bad things to say about it. I remember her saying "It stunk,"
and "It was appallingly bad," among other comments of derision. She
absolutely hated it and couldn't figure why anyone would like it.



BROKEN FLOWERS runs 1:45 but feels much longer. It is rated R for
"language, some graphic nudity and brief drug use" and would be acceptable
for teenagers.



The film is playing in nationwide release now in the United States. In the
Silicon Valley, it is showing at the Century theaters.



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