I’m a fan of Bill Murray (I write the ‘I’m a fan of…’ phrase a lot I’ve noticed), and director Jim Jarmusch is a legend, so going to see Broken Flowers was an easy decision to make. I saw it some time ago now and it obviously didn’t leave me ready to rave about as it’s taken me this long to write it up, but I enjoyed it. It’s a very quiet, very slow film with an appeal that’s hard to define, very similar to it’s lead character in fact, Don Johnston (Murray).
Don is a man who has made his fortune in computers, yet seems a very unassuming sort. He also has a reputation as something of a ladies man, but when his current squeeze leaves him and a mystery letter arrives claiming he has a son by one of his previous girlfriends, his world takes a strange turn. Spurred on by his neighbour Winston (Jeffrey Wright), a part-time private investigator, Don sets off to meet all of the women he can remember sleeping with in the year his son must has been born to see if he can find out more about him.
What follows is a strange mix of characters as Don meets the various women, who all live very different lives, providing a very strange character study. It’s not an entirely successful trip for Don. The movie is fairly slow, and without a great deal of direction or purpose, the letter merely serves as an excuse to go and see all the other characters. It’s not that I didn’t enjoy the film, it simply didn’t connect with me in any way. It has moments that are very funny, very moving and very sad, it stars a serious array of talent but, for me at least, it had no point.
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