Broken Flowers

(Movie Review)

There’s no denying Bill Murray is a very funny man. And his recent successes demonstrate he’s just as funny now as he was when he was in his prime.

But, if you’ll allow me to state the obvious, his recent movies are a lot different than the kind of acting he used to do back in the early 80s. Most of his recent movies involve a minimalist acting in which he is placed in frustrating situations and just uses his facial expressions to show his exasperation. He’s the perfect straight man to a crazy world all around him.

As such, he was hilarious in “Rushmore”, “Lost in Translation” “The Royal Tennebaums” and “The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou”. But with all his recent successes, I wonder if he isn’t in danger of too many trips to the well. Does there become a point in which all these performances start to seem too much the same?

“Broken Flowers” was pretty much exactly what I expected it would be. Bill Murray was absolutely hilarious, but I did have the sense that I had seen this movie before with Bill Murray as the lonely old man awkwardly fumbling his way through uncomfortable social situations.

The plot of this movie, by the way, sets up these awkwardly social situations perfectly, if somewhat unrealistically. But I thought the funniest parts of the movie were all in the beginning before the plot really got underway, when Bill Murray was hanging out with his amateur detective neighbor, and interacting with his neighbor’s kids. Once the road trip gets underway, the movie kind of lags a bit.

The movie ends unresolved. I can’t decide if that’s really cool or really annoying. Right now I’m leaning towards really annoying. I know we are spoiled by Hollywood endings, and that open endings are a lot more true to life. On the other hand, if there was ever a movie with a ridiculous Hollywood set-up, this one is it: a man gets an unsigned letter with no return address (and a postage stamp conveniently too faded to read) telling him he had a kid 20 years ago, and because he slept with so many women he has to take a road trip and visit them all to find out who sent the letter. And, for unclear reasons, he can’t just come out and ask them if they sent the letter, but he has to try and guess by picking up clues from their conversation. If you’re going to give me a ridiculous plot like that, at least give me an ending where I can get closure.

Useless Wikipedia Fact
Despite (or perhaps because of) its reputation as a bad film, "Plan 9 from Outer Space" does not appear on the Internet Movie Database's "Bottom 100" list of the 100 worst-reviewed films on the site. Reportedly, in his research for the film Ed Wood, Martin Landau watched all of Bela Lugosi's movies and said Bela Lugosi Meets a Brooklyn Gorilla "made the Ed Wood films look like Gone with the Wind."

Link of the Day
D-R-M, (link via Mr. Guam) has started his series of comic books from his youth. For other comic fans, this first entry looks pretty promising.

Broken Flowers: Movie Reviews (Scripted)