Review of Broken Flowers (2005) by Timothy S — 23 Feb 2012

For decades now, filmmaker Jim Jarmusch has been something of a critical darling, but he had yet to make an impression on me with his mostly bizarre and unwieldy films. "Broken Flowers" is probably his most accessible film to date and one of only two films by the director that I've honestly enjoyed.

This is basically a series of vignettes as Bill Murray searches for his son, and while some are better than others, they all tie the film together. They range from funny to uncomfortable to bittersweet, and I was most impressed with Sharon Stone. The twilight of her career hasn't always been kind to her, but here she hits all the right notes.

Still, the key that holds the whole thing together and makes this imminently watchable is Murray himself. It's so impressive to think about how much he's grown as an actor, as just fifteen or twenty years ago, it would have been inconceivable to imagine him in this role. Yet now, it fits him like a glove. He's such an expressive actor that even when he's not doing or saying anything, his expressions speak volumes and it's terrific watching him work here. The brief scene of him visiting the grave of a past lover is the most poignant one in the film, and he pulls it off with only a few words.

However, there's no real payoff in the end, and that's the only thing that keeps this good film from being a great one. There's a nice moment here where he meets a kid that could be his son, but that whole meeting is too ambiguous. After the journey we just went on with Murray, I felt the audience deserved a more concrete resolution. Until then, however, "Broken Flowers" is a subtle, artful film that brought me a new appreciation for Jarmusch. It will not likely be a permanent thing.