Jim Jarmusch - Broken Flowers - Review

This particular collaboration between auteur director Jim Jarmusch and Bill Murray seems to be a perfect mix of acting sensibilities and a director's artistic vision. Jarmusch is not known for main stream films though his contributions to the film community, really has brought something different and rare to the industry.

A good example is Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai, Oscar nominee, Forest Whitaker, (The Last King of Scotland) plays a somewhat reluctant assassin with an obsession with carrier pigeons. A very strange film but an interesting one, feeling compelled to unlock the film's message when, in fact, there might not be a message.

This is Jarmusch's style, emotion and visuals must carry the film, words, on the other hand are incidental.

The same could be said about Broken Flowers. Bill Murray's expressive eyes and revealing body language says more than his limited dialogue.

The plot is a simple one: rich, retired and lifeless man loses girlfriend and receives a (pink) letter telling the man that he has a 19 year old son. Feeling self pity over his present break-up with his girl friend, he becomes more lifeless, despite the fact that someone has reached out and stated he has a son. The emotional state of Apathy is a strange disease. Nothing in life matters and the strength to even move from the couch to the bedroom requires a tremendous amount of effort. (This is done extremely well in the opening scenes).

Enter his next door neighbour, Winston, (Jeffery Wright) an enthusiastic man in love with life, not only a father of six, working several jobs, but working on his first crime novel. Johnson's (Murray) only real friend, he coaxes Don to investigate the matter, thus he hits the road, visiting his old girlfriends, in search of his son. This is a great premise for any story whether short story, novel or film.

"Revisiting" films, plays and novels, is a well used premise for any protagonist to examine their life and make an honest assessment of their past and an opportunity to set their life `right' again. The list is enormous, Our Town, A Christmas Carol, It's a Wonderful Life, etc. this territory has been well trodden.

Broken Flowers, however, does not follow the realist form of story telling, that is to say, a resolution and awakening from the main character. The Murray character, in most respects, is just as lonely and apathetic at the end of the story, but he at least, reaches for a possibility, (seeing a homeless boy) which was a far cry from his behaviour at the start. This character does transform, though not in a dramatic way, but somehow changes into a lesser form of apathy. 

The story ends and we wonder what will become of him...and the boy he meets?...will this man continue on this path or return to his lifeless existence...Jarmusch, like most great story tellers, leaves it up to us to decide, finishing the tale, leaving the audience to form their own conclusions.

Broken Flowers is one of Jarmusch's more accessible films though never created for the main stream perspective.

Broken Flowers is not a great film but a very good one.