Broken Flowers

 

Broken Flowers 2005

• Director: Jim Jarmusch
• Seen by this director: Only Lovers Left Alive, Coffee and Cigarettes, Dead Man, Night on Earth, Mystery Train, Down by Law
• Based on novel: no
• Cast: Bill Murray, Jeffrey Wright, Julie Delpy, Sharon Stone, Alexis Dziena, Frances Conroy, Jessica Lange, Chloë Sevigny, Tilda Swinton, Ryan Donowho
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in
• Bill Murray – Zombieland 1&2, Moonrise Kingdom, Darjeeling Limited, Coffee & Cigarettes. Lost in Translation, The Royal Tenenbaums, Hamlet, Cradle Will Rock, Rushmore, Ed Wood, Groundhog Day, What about Bob, Ghostbusters, Tootsie
• Jeffrey Wright – The Hunger Games, Only Lovers Left Alive, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, Cadillac Record, Quantum of Solace, Angels in America, Hamlet, Presumed Innocent
• Julie Delpy – Before Midnight, Two Days in New York, Before Sunset, Before Sunrise, The Red Film, The White Film, The Blue Film
• Frances Conroy – Shelter, Stay Cool, Six Feet Under, Sleepless in Seattle, The Scent of a Woman, Billy Bathgate 
• Jessica Lange – Big Fish, Titus, A Thousand Acres, Rob Roy, Frances, Tootsie, The Postman Always Rings Twice
• Chloë Sevigny – The Snowman, Love & Friendship, Manderlay, Dogville, American Psycho, The Last Days of Disco
• Tilda Swinton – Doctor Strange, Hail Caesar!, Snowpiercer, Only Lovers Left Alive, Moonrise Kingdom, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Thumbsucker, Young Adam, Adaption, Beach, Orlando
• Ryan Donowho - Bandslam
• Why? Jarmusch
• Seen: Once before. Now 16 March 2023 

There’s a conflict here for me. I generally like Jarmusch’s films, and I don’t like Murray. My memories of seeing this film before are vague, but I don’t think I liked it. But I also think it’s worth a second chance.

Don (Murry) is a white sad sack IT millionaire whose latest girlfriend has left him because he’s a Don Juan. He gets an anonymous letter from someone who claims to be an old girlfriend who had a son by him, and the son is on his way to find him.

            Don’s Ethiopian neighbour and friend Winston (Wright) is an enthusiastic amateur detective and wants to find out who the woman is. Don couldn’t care less but gives Winston a list of possibles. Winston digs up the addresses and sends Don on an odyssey to find them, telling him not to forget to bring flowers.

            It’s OK, I guess. Conroy, Lange and Swinton, unrecognisable in long black hair and heavy make-up, help, and the pointless meandering story slowly pulls me in. The main problem is Murray. He engenders zero sympathy and interest. Christopher Walken or Johnny Depp would have been so much better in the role. 

2 ½ * of 5