Broken Flowers (2005)

Film Review of Jim Jarmusch Comedy

Mar 27, 2009 Martin G. Wood

Broken Flowers, written and directed by Jim Jarmusch, is the story of an aging Don Juan, named Don Johnston, played by Bill Murray, on the road, in search of answers.

One day, Don’s live-in love Sherry (Julie Delpy) leaves Don literally standing in the doorway. Before her final exit, coincidentally or not coincidentally, Sherry picks up Don’s stack of mail previously deposited through the letter-box, and hands it to Don on her way out. Standing frozen in the doorway, Don rifles through the mail to discover a pink letter indicating that he has a son.

Bill Murray's Mystery Train

Don’s friend and next door neighbor Winston, a father to a slew of kids, and holder of multiple jobs, fancies himself an amateur sleuth; so when Don tells Winston of the letter, Winston becomes determined to help Don find his son.

Winston insists Don write-out a list of previous lovers of whom he may have left in the family way. Once Don reluctantly produces the list, Winston is off and running, preparing an itinerary for Don’s road trip, complete with rental car and airline reservations, and a mix tape of road music.

Don agrees to take the road trip, if for no other reason, than he might discover why the women in his life are always leaving him. After another sleepless night staring at the television, Don hits the road.

Bill Murray's Love Lost

As soon as Don pops that mix tape in, and Mulatu Astatke’s gorgeous Ethiopian jazz begins to play, Don’s journey begins, the movie shifts gears, and becomes the kind of meandering, mellow, and quixotic quest for happiness Jim Jarmusch fans have come to expect from previous films like Stranger Than Paradise (1984), Down By Law (1986), Mystery Train (1989), Night on Earth (1991), Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai (1999), and Coffee and Cigarettes (2003).

The women of Don’s past range from the wild and wooly Laura (Sharon Stone), the widow of a race car driver, and mother to a frisky teenage Lolita (literally, her name is Lolita), to a bizarre Stepford Wife living in a Stepford home, Dora (Frances Conroy of Desperate Housewives); Carmen (Jessica Lange), an animal communicator; and Penny (Tilda Swinton), a rough biker chick with a grudge.

Jim Jarmusch's Crossroads

In addition to being understandably bewildered by the way his former lovers have changed, Don forges ahead, asking directly and indirectly, the question. But, with each increasingly disturbing encounter, Don comes to realize, he may not find the answer.

Jarmusch fans will instinctively recognize when the final scene of Broken Flowers has arrived; for it will consist of the very same crossroads where so many characters from Jarmusch’s unique imagination had stood before.

The copyright of the article Broken Flowers (2005) in Independent Films is owned by Martin G. Wood. Permission to republish Broken Flowers (2005) in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.

Broken Flowers

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