Murray blossoms quietly in 'Broken Flowers'
In another fine dramatic turn, Bill Murray delivers a gloriously understated performance in a film that seeks to touch, not pound.
By STEVE PERSALL
Published August 18, 2005
The most fascinating career metamorphosis of this generation is Bill Murray's from class clown to world-class dramatic actor. Murray became a star doing anything for a laugh. Now he excels at playing men who've forgotten how to laugh, and barely even smile.
Broken Flowers gives Murray another plum role to severely underplay: Don Johnston could have been in the back seat of the car in Sideways, a middle-aged man whose past is catching up to him as he saunters away. Yet another woman (Julie Delpy) has caught on to his lack of commitment, heading out the door as an anonymous letter from a past lover arrives.
Watch Murray's reactions - or sublime lack of them - to the news. He does what many of us might do: sits on the couch in stunned silence, looking around the house at memories and wondering what's next. Then comes a slow tip to the side, a tucking of legs, and a fetal position of helplessness. A quick edit to Don several minutes, perhaps hours, later is the punch line. Jarmusch is a master of such nothingness; his morphing from mood-setter to storyteller is another career leap.
Broken Flowers is a collection of such moments, a series of long scenes and slow fades to black before Murray's next subdued revelation occurs. It will be considered dull by Murray fans waiting for him to go wild and crazy. Those viewers shouldn't forget the past, but they should forgive and appreciate one of the finest actors working today.
Don finally opens the letter, sharing the contents with his neighbor Winston (Jeffrey Wright), a lover of crime novels fancying himself as an amateur sleuth. Whoever wrote the letter claims Don fathered a son with her 20 years ago. "He's shy and secretive, unlike you," she writes. But it's so long ago that she doesn't know that's precisely what Don is now.
Winston urges his friend to solve the mystery, not considering the mess it could cause, only that it's a chance to play Internet detective. Wright (Angels in America, Shaft) adds the lively spark a minimalist effort such as Broken Flowers needs, figuratively yanking Don off that couch and into a muted adventure. Winston locates five women Don dated 20 years ago, setting up a triptych of uncertain nostalgia to identify the letter writer and perhaps meet his son.
Don doesn't need to make this cross-country trip. He doesn't own a computer, but he knows how to use a telephone. However, the trip offers looks at what his life might have been, like George Bailey but more quietly depressed. The women are Don's ghosts from futures that are long past. He's trying on other lives for size, and they don't fit any better than his own.
What he finds along the way are fragile pleasures that shouldn't be spoiled. All you need to know is that four actors in top form each are showcased, then disappear, probably in the same fashion their characters split from Don. Sharon Stone plays Laura, whose widowhood and exhibitionist daughter, Lolita (Alexis Dziena), start the trip on a frivolous note. Things get darker with Dora (Frances Conroy) and her neurosis of success. Carmen (Jessica Lange) is a bit of both types, an "animal communicator" - the film's closest swerve to conventional comedy - and a cold shower for Don's fantasy of happiness. Penny (an unrecognizable Tilda Swinton) is the rock bottom Don is destined to hit.
There's even a detour to a lover who couldn't have possibly birthed Don's child, resulting in a devastating moment of naked emotion from Murray. It's one of those rare acting moments that I wish I'd had more time to observe, yet Jarmusch stops short of overt sentimentality throughout Broken Flowers.
That's an important factor in the film's allure, once viewers come to terms with the fact that neither Jarmusch nor Murray want to make anyone laugh or cry out loud. Smiles and sorrowful gasps are much more interesting. "Sometimes life brings some strange surprises," reads one line in that anonymous letter. So does the cinema, and Broken Flowers is one of them.
Broken FlowersGrade: A
Director: Jim Jarmusch
Cast: Bill Murray, Jeffrey Wright, Sharon Stone, Frances Conroy, Jessica Lange, Tilda Swinton, Julie Delpy, Chloe Sevigny, Christopher McDonald, Alexis Dziena
Screenplay: Jim Jarmusch
Rating: R; profanity, brief frontal nudity, brief drug use
Running time: 105 min.