Broken Flowers breaks out at a snail's pace and stays there (try The Island followed by Flowers and you'll need a neck brace from the whiplash). Don
Johnston is still a ladies man at heart. We join him as a pink envelope
is delivered to his door, the one his girlfriend is walking out of.
She's suspicious of a possible other(s). If Don is upset though, it's
difficult to tell. In Jarmuschian extendo-time we see him sitting on
the couch, lying on the couch....sitting on the couch... He's
practically mummified now, but still manages to pay his neighbor
Winston (Jeffrey Wright) courtesy visits, and pay his wife due
compliments at the right moments. She's a woman after all, one of many
that revolve around Don's stationary head in Flowers. Through
her and Winston, we see and hear glimpses of the chick magnet he
supposedly used to be. But when he finally opens the pink envelope he
learns that one of his past loves may have had a son by him twenty
years past. The only trouble is, he doesn't know who. Luckily Winston's
out of work interests include detective novels and amateur sleuth work.
This gives him the perfect reason to play a dumbed down Matlock. He
puts together a cross country trip down memory lane for Don, prodding
him to re-connect with a handful of old flames and solve the mystery.
Oh, and don't forget to bring flowers...pink flowers. This is the real world flip to Capra's It's a Wonderful Life,
where a man can sees how the world was with him, rather than without.
For an aging ladies man, it's not the sunniest picture. Don is a
reluctant hero, but is immediately likable for the usual reasons
emotionally numb characters are: they're sympathetic, underdogs we hope
mount a comeback. All he has to do is find a typewriter or some pink
stationary, put two and two together and rekindle the family that never
was. He never really succeeds though, in the carpe diem sense. Don
has the enthusiasm of a Charlie Brown with too many little red-haired
girls, but only the golden haired widow of a race car driver (Sharon
Stone), and her rather....let's see...."open", daughter Lolita seem to
have any interest in seeing him. The other women, a real estate dealer,
a pet communicator, and a back woods ruffian's housemate have different
reactions, ranging from discomfort to disgust. And shouldn't they?
What's hard to swallow given that it's Bill Murray, is the fallibility
of this character. He's prepared us in a sense through his roles
in Lost in Translation and Life Aquatic, both
exposing him to relationships under stress, but Don is more than an
ex-lover. He's a man whose past has taken more from these women than
he's given them. Another actor might play the role with
more edge, with a more dramatic sense of gravity in where life has
taken him, but Murray plays it a good notch above full blown
depression. Or maybe it comes off so just knowing Murray is Murray, and
assuming like Don, that he's unchangeable at heart. You can't help but
wait for the punch-line, or Murray's trademark slow burn before the
sarcasm slips out. Many scenes, such as the dinner with the real-estate
ex and her oddly happy husband, seem tailored for a typical Murray
sting. It's held back for the most part, but still gives the film a
low-cal feel where it might ordinarily drag. But hats off to director
Jarmusch for stringing us along as long as he does. Intentionally
playing Murray against expectation or not, it's a tool that does punch
eventually. When Don finally nears the end of his journey at the grave
of another former lover, we see a man finally realizing the loss in his
life, and there's nothing funny about it. But the payoff scene is cut
abruptly sharp, and paints Don as even more the tragic figure; he's not
even allowed the time to feel this moment when it finally does come.
Fair enough. Flowers is less about seeing a man in a
cathartic fit of tears than coming to sober conclusions about his life.
By the film's end, his realization is complete. As he stands in the
street looking for the son he's not sure he has, Don becomes the true
product of his choices. And time, as they say, is short.
EXTRAS
Extras on the DVD - what little there is of them - include an EPK-style
behind-the-scenes featurette, outtakes with Murray; and an extended
scene.
Conclusion:
Movie 80% Extras: 50%
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