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Broken Flowers, Jim Jarmusch's widely heralded
new film, utilizes the classic road movie format as the vehicle for a deadpan midlife
crisis, all delivered in an understated, mildly comic style heavily laced with melancholy.
Early on, Jarmusch has his hero, Don Johnston (Bill Murray), watching the 1934 film The
Private Life of Don Juan, a clue to Johnston's history of sexual conquest without
emotional commitment. His current girl friend, Sherry (Julie Delpy) walks out on him,
calling him "an over the hill Don Juan" and complaining that he treats her like
a mistress--and he isn't even married.
Johnston has made his fortune ("in computers"), lives in a
large house, luxurious but notably lacking in style, and passively watches a lot of TV.
His only friend is his neighbor Winston (JeffreyWright), an Ethiopian (national identity
of no apparent significance), who acts as little more than a plot device. Johnston gets an
anonymous letter, presumably from a former lover, who tells him she fathered a son by him
nineteen years before, a son who is now seeking out his father. Winston convinces Johnston
to look up four women from his past, one of whom might be the letter writer, and his
journey begins.
His first visit is with Laura Daniels (Sharon Stone in a subtly shaded
performance), widow of a racing car driver and a professional closet organizer--a fine
touch of the absurd. Her nymphet daughter, Lolita (Alexis Dziena, who strikes just the
right note), seems very much her mother's daughter and, indeed, Laura's easy and casual
approach to sex without strings emotionally aligns her with Johnston.
Second is Dora (Frances Conroy), who, with her smarmy husband Ron
(Chistopher McDonald), has made a fortune in "quality prefab homes." She seems
locked in a narrow (if comfortable) existence and suffused with an unarticulated
sadness--a longing, perhaps, for what might have been. The third lover is Carmen (Jessica
Lange, also delivering a skillfully layered performance), a successful lawyer who now
sells herself as an "animal communicator," yet another amusing bit of the
absurd. She is enthusiastically protected by her assistant (Chloe Sevigny) who turns out
to be her lover. And finally, Johnston ends up in a bikers' community where he is
confronted by a hostile Penny (Tilda Swinton).
Along the way, Johnston is looking for clues to identify the
letter-writer: the color pink, a typewriter, evidence of motherhood. Finally, he has a
brief encounter with a young man who may or may not be his son. The philosophy that
Johnston offers at this point is uncomfortably hackneyed. Is this all he learned from this
series of encounters?
Admirers of Bill Murray will no doubt swoon over his performance in Broken
Flowers. It's a reiteration in ways of Lost in Translation in which he also says
little and maintains the deadpan response. It works well enough here most of the time and
Murray does use his eyes to telling effect. As might be expected of a Don Juan, there is
an emotional hole at his center, a missing connection that his journey has put into
perspective. But the role is otherwise so underwritten that that point alone seems slight
characterization for the central character. The classic literary Don Juan was aggressive
and a skilled seducer, traits that lent interest to a heartless rogue. But Jarmusch allows
for none of that in Johnston, only a history that isn't consistent with the character as
presented in the film.
Broken Flowers has a good deal of off-handed charm and enough
satirical moments (cell phone joke included) to sustain interest, but it's no more than Don
Juan Lite, offering a veneer of profundity, lacking in payoff.
- Arthur Lazere
