Review of Broken Flowers (2005) by Leandro D — 06 Mar 2010

Bill Murray plays Don Johnston, a former Don Juan who likes to seek solace in his own couch and spends most of his time watching old movies. His current girlfriend, Sherry (Julie Delpy) just dumped him, and he didn't even put a lot of effort and sincerity to ask her to stay. Anyways, after she left, Don got a letter in a pink envelope from an anonymous woman saying that he has a 19-year-old son who might be looking for him. Don didn't even flinch. But his friend, Winston (Jeffrey Wright) who is a mystery novel enthusiast/busybody, urged him to list down the names of his former girlfriends from around 20 years ago and asked him to at least go and talk to them and find out who the mother is. Don reluctantly did just that.

Bill Murray's performance here is almost the same as his performance in 'Lost In Translation'. It's great. His face alone can convey most of his feelings without even talking. That's pretty tough, since he is famous for his funny antics. Some people say, his face expressions alone can make most people laugh. But here, even though very few scenes are funny, one cannot mistake his expressions for being humorous. You would feel that after each encounter with his ex-girlfriends, his attitude changes. His mood changes. This film is moved forward purely on body languages, not much on the dialogues. Bill Murray fitted the bill. Whereas Jim Jarmusch had created another work of art.