Broken Flowers (2005)

It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.

Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

This movie tries so hard to be funny, yet it falls flat every time. Just another example of recycled ideas repackaged with women in an attempt to appeal to a certain audience.

Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

Don Johnston (Bill Murray) is a bit of a Don Juan although he doesn't like the comparison. He made a small fortune in computer and lives in isolation in his home watching old movies. His girlfriend Sherry (Julie Delpy) leaves him. A letter arrives from a former lover with news of a teen son approaching 19. His neighbor and friend Winston (Jeffrey Wright) is an amateur sleuth and plans out an excursion to track down his former lovers. Laura (Sharon Stone) has flirtatious daughter Lolita (Alexis Dziena). Dora (Frances Conroy) is married to stuffy Ron (Christopher McDonald). Carmen (Jessica Lange) has an assistant (Chloë Sevigny) in a pet therapist business. Penny (Tilda Swinton) has biker friends.Bill Murray is more deadpan than usual in this one. It's in addition to Jim Jarmusch's minimalist style. It is very much his style and for fans of his work. The tone is not broadly comedic. There are sporadic chuckles but it's not enough for me to like. It's a little too quiet in this quietly funny film.

I haven't yet been able to pin down the exact location of all of the ex- girlfriends, but there are two clues that lead me to believe that the real estate agent (second visit) sent the letter. In the very beginning of the movie, the camera follows the route of the letter through the post office sorting machine, and briefly stops at a point where you can see other letters in the sorting box which come from and are addressed to people in New Jersey )you'll have to use the pause button and examine the frame carefully to see this). The real estate agent in the second visit, according to her pink business card, works in Richmond Lake, New Jersey. Has anyone determined whether any of the other ex-girlfriends also live in New Jersey?

I recently watched "Night on Earth" by Director Jim Jarmusch. Besides being a typical Arthaus movie, I didn't know, what to write about it and decided to give it a rewatch. "Broken Flowers" made it easier for me and I really liked it. Bill Murray is perfect in the role of a notorious womanizer trying to find out which one of his former partners wrote him a letter that she had a son with him. He's going for a search in the whole country, which makes this movie looking like a different kind of roadmovie. The women are played by great actresses such as Delpy, Lange, Stone, Conroy and Sevigny. The story is very straightforward, it all comes down to the interaction between Don and the women. It's at once comedy and drama, but nothing emotionally strong. To me it had something of a roadmovie and had also that "Up in the Air" travelling feeling. It's a fine film with some great moments but likewise it was not outstanding either. Jim Jarmusch is loved by the female audience and this movies shows why: he understands them well and his female characters are interesting. He's like the American Almodovar. You must like this kind of movie-making and most importantly: you must like Bill Murray.

The Plot. As the extremely withdrawn Don Johnston is dumped by his latest woman, he receives an anonymous letter from a former lover informing him that he has a son who may be looking for him. A freelance sleuth neighbor moves Don to embark on a cross-country search for his old flames in search of answers.What's with the good reviews? This movie is not only pointless, it's an insult to anyone's intelligence. The story is dumb and everyone acts as if they are stoned and have no emotion.The writing is horrible.Bill Murray is supposed to be a former internet hot shot but he cake walks through this role like he's asleep. One of the few times i can say i was bored silly by his performance.I bet he agreed to this trash just so he could bang all the women in it.