Film Review: Broken Flowers
Jim Jarmusch's film is a lovely and somewhat poignant journal that captures the vivacity of Americans and their relationships. In this film, the journey is more important than the destination. The audience is brought along into the heartlands of the country to meet unusual characters living their lives as individuals almost detached from the present world.
Don Johnston (Bill Murray) stars as an aging casanova who is on the verge of having another woman leave him. He appears destined to live his life as a chronic passivist, that when his latest girlfriend packs up and leaves, he lets her go without a struggle, only to withdraw to his couch to watch television.
Things starts to slowly stir when he receives an unexpected letter from a long ago ex, who claims that he had fathered her son who is now 19 years old and on his way to find his real dad. With the urging of his Ethiopian neighbor, Winston, who with a wife, 5 kids and 3 jobs is an exact opposite of Don, he sets out on a trip to find the origin of the letter.
The journey here is a backward-looking one; the camera focuses time and again on the rear view mirror in the car. Don is backtracking literally on his life, going back in time to revisit his old flames who each seemed to share larger than life moments with him. It is a bittersweet journey as the romance has faded, but the relational baggage still exists. (A second journey is being carried out by his supposed son who is tracing his roots, but in opposite directions)
Murray is brilliant here as the thrown-about early retiree who comes to terms with his past and seeks to eschew only the present. The supporting cast, including Sharon Stone, Frances Conroy, Jessica Lange and Tilda Swinton, creates a wide palette of eccentric types that further emphasizes life's plenitude of people, lifestyles, homes and dreams.
Jarmusch lovingly details the emotions of such a journey and the accompanying psychological flashback with such heart but also nuances, it just makes one itch to go on a similar trip into one's past. There are no big emotions or tear-jerking dramatic scenes here. The ending is not monumental or climatic. Life, as depicted by Jarmusch, is one filled with one quiet moment after another.
Don Johnston (Bill Murray) stars as an aging casanova who is on the verge of having another woman leave him. He appears destined to live his life as a chronic passivist, that when his latest girlfriend packs up and leaves, he lets her go without a struggle, only to withdraw to his couch to watch television.
Things starts to slowly stir when he receives an unexpected letter from a long ago ex, who claims that he had fathered her son who is now 19 years old and on his way to find his real dad. With the urging of his Ethiopian neighbor, Winston, who with a wife, 5 kids and 3 jobs is an exact opposite of Don, he sets out on a trip to find the origin of the letter.
The journey here is a backward-looking one; the camera focuses time and again on the rear view mirror in the car. Don is backtracking literally on his life, going back in time to revisit his old flames who each seemed to share larger than life moments with him. It is a bittersweet journey as the romance has faded, but the relational baggage still exists. (A second journey is being carried out by his supposed son who is tracing his roots, but in opposite directions)
Murray is brilliant here as the thrown-about early retiree who comes to terms with his past and seeks to eschew only the present. The supporting cast, including Sharon Stone, Frances Conroy, Jessica Lange and Tilda Swinton, creates a wide palette of eccentric types that further emphasizes life's plenitude of people, lifestyles, homes and dreams.
Jarmusch lovingly details the emotions of such a journey and the accompanying psychological flashback with such heart but also nuances, it just makes one itch to go on a similar trip into one's past. There are no big emotions or tear-jerking dramatic scenes here. The ending is not monumental or climatic. Life, as depicted by Jarmusch, is one filled with one quiet moment after another.
posted by moebius @ 12:32 PM
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