Viewed: 17 August 2005
Directed by: Jim Jarmusch
Listed in: Movies, Cinema

Initially I was annoyed, in the past Jim Jarmusch has made films extremely evocative of the place they were set, Down by Law in New Orleans, Mystery Train in Memphis, even Stranger then Paradise in New York, Cleveland and Florida. In Broken Flowers, Bill Murray flies into and out of Newark international several times to visit former flames all of whom live in the tri-state area. He goes places, but the film stays in one. But ignoring geographic setting problem (which I place a lot of emphasis on), the film was really good. It’s built around a series of assumptions, that give Bill Murray a journey through his past loves, each one possibly the mother of his son. It is generally slow (during it I had to remind myself this is a Jarmusch film) and while funny, not really laughing funny. I wonder how much I would have put up with, if this wasn’t Jarmusch and Murray. But I think it leaves something to chew on. The subtleties of the relationships and Bill Murray’s lonely performance slowly coming to light.