>>REVIEW
BROKEN FLOWERS
STARRING Bill Murray, Jeffery Wright and Sharon Stone
WRITTEN AND DIRECTED BY Jim Jarmusch
Opens Friday, August 12
Globe Theatre
Broken Flowers is a minimalist masterpiece from two of the best players in the business. Writer-director Jim Jarmusch has built his career making quirky little pictures that involve people who have done a great many things in their past, but never seem to do them on the screen. He teams up with Bill Murray, the actor who appears to do absolutely nothing onscreen, but for some reason we just can’t take our eyes off him. Given that pedigree, you’d think this movie wouldn’t work, seeing as apparently nothing happens. On the contrary, not only is Broken Flowers one of the best films of the year, it is easily the best film of both Jarmusch and Murray’s careers.
Murray plays Don Johnston, an aging Don Juan who receives an anonymous pink letter telling him that 20 years ago, he fathered a son who may be coming to find him. Jeffery Wright, in one of my favourite performances of the year, plays Winston, Don’s Ethiopian neighbour who, even though he has three jobs and five kids, still finds time to play amateur sleuth and agrees to help Don find out who wrote the letter. Don, begrudgingly, makes a list of all the potential mothers (there are four) and takes a cross-country trip that brings him face to face with his past, giving him glimpses of what his future might have been had he stayed with any one of his four exes.
The women – Sharon Stone, Tilda Swinton, Jessica Lange and Frances Conroy – each give flawless performances playing wonderful characters. There are small surprises that will make audiences smile, wince and cry. By the time Don gets to ex No. 2 we realize that this trip has nothing to do with finding out who bore his son, but everything to do with Don himself.
The beauty of this film is that it’s a small movie with a small engine and a huge heart. Broken Flowers basically mirrors Jarmusch’s last effort, Coffee and Cigarettes, only this film has a plot and, more importantly, a point. This is a movie where the hero’s journey is clearly more important than his destination, and the entire cast is up for the trip. Jarmusch writes such wonderful dialogue that the actors simply have to say the words. It’s a lot like watching children play.
At the heart of Broken Flowers is Murray who carries every frame of this film and is a wonder to behold. To call his performance subtle is almost an insult. Murray doesn’t perform anything, he is Don Johnston blood and breath and – he is astonishing to watch. |
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