Broken Flowers Review

Jim Jarmusch’s style is, at its best, hypnotic. At its worst it feels like you’ve been hit in the head by a frying pan. His films work best when he can find a protagonist who is experiencing the world in the same ways Jarmusch films it. Ghost Dog worked so well in large part because Forrest Whittaker’s character was seeking a Zen ideal that fit in with Jarmusch’s stillness. Now comes Don Johnston, embodied by Bill Murray, a man so shut off from his own emotions that Jarmusch’s style gains a psychological resonance that he had not achieved before. Murray’s repressed performance would be a bore if Jarmusch had not so thoroughly planned out the emotional arc of the film. By matching him up with the outgoing, friendly neighbor (played by Jeffrey Wright – who may very well be the best actor alive) at the beginning of the film, we understand there is a warm world out there, just one that Don can’t or won’t tune into. During Don’s quest, where he revisits five old girlfriends, Murray downplays everything. He is so repressed and reserved that his every word and motion seem to betray some sort of important personal information. You study him, and he is a fascinating subject. Jarmusch is too much of an iconoclast to give the viewer any real answers, but he has provided enough information to let the viewers draw their own conclusions. Broken Flowers is Jarmusch’s best film.