Broken Flowers

Normally producing cult films like Coffee and Cigarettes and Ghost Dog, Jim Jarmusch’s most recent film is a much more commercial effort. Starring Hollywood’s most popular deadpan actor, Bill Murray, the film is a cinematic delight. It is similar in tone to Sofia Coppola’s Lost in Translation, hidden in emotion and with an emphasis as much on what doesn't happen as what does. The retired Don Johnson (Murray) has just been dumped by his latest girlfriend (Julie Delpy). As she leaves the house she hands him a pink letter that has come through his letterbox. The letter is anonymously from one of Don’s ex-girlfriends informing him he has a son who may be looking for him. The film follows Don visiting his old girlfriends’ houses trying to find clues to the mysterious pink letter. Aided by his family-man, amateur sleuth neighbour, Winston (Wright), Don’s journey through his past is both comical, bizarre and violent, causing Don to examine his relationships, study himself and deal with the present as well as the past.

Murray’s acting is effortless. He is void of emotion and incredibly restrained as Don, using expression and remarkable timing to achieve both laughs and poignancy. The film itself is fragmented in style; disconnected but full of thought and consideration with the melancholy Murray portraying the lonely eccentric. So void of emotion is Don that when his eyes swell with tears at the end of film, the moment is ten times more poignant. The film could be considered as being unsatisfying because the ending offers no real closure, but this is Jarmusch’s point and is one is of the finest moments in the film. Don’s own advice, “the past is gone, the future isn't here yet, all there is is this”, is a perfect way of encapsulating the heart of the film. Surreal, disconnected, comedic and brilliant, this is a film that leaves you both wanting more and strangely satisfied. A clever idea, an intelligent script and near perfect acting is what makes it the stunning success it is.

Victoria Galloway