Reviews
Broken Flowers - Brought to you by Gazz Wood -
When exiting the cinema after seeing this flick, you may be excused for holding the view that it is a bad one. It is slow, quiet, still, and pretty dull. But it works.
Between Director Jim Jaramusch (Cigarettes and Coffee) and Lead actor Bill Murray (Lost in Translation, The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou), they have managed to construct a slow, thoughtful, and completely delightful film. Under close inspection, it lacks a lot of what makes most great films great. The camera is static, the shots are long, there’s very little action stretched to fit each scene, the cinematography is nice but not special, and whilst there is a goal it is not achieved nor merely hinted towards by the end of the film.
Like I say, you might be fooled into thinking you’ve seen a bad film. Even now, you might think this is a bad review. It’s not.
The basic synopsis of the film is Don Johnston (Murray) receives a pink letter from a former lover shortly after he is dumped by current girlfriend Shelly. The letter informs him of an 18-year-old son, trying to find his father. With the help of neighbour/ Private Investigator wannabe Winston, Don revisits 5 past flames in a bid to find the writer of the mysterious pink letter, and mother to his son.
With the help of the excellent script (I imagine) and genius of Jaramusch to place us deep into Don’s world, it really a true nail biting story. Which one is the mother? Could it be her? There are only 2 left! Are just a few of the questions I asked myself.
However, there is a twist. It’s so subtle you may not see it, and in fact SO subtle that it may just be my imagination. I don’t want to spoil anything for anyone, but it seems Don’s true goal, and the true story of the film only reveals itself about 30 minutes after you leave the cinema.
Apart from that, the only other thing worthy of mention is a wonderfully revealed, and beautifully presented full frontal from relative newcomer Alexis Dzeau.
Mindblowing.