A Scientist at the Movies Reviews by Greg Paris

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Title: Broken Flowers

Date Viewed: 8/20/05

Details:

Bill Murray

Jeffrey Wright

Sharon Stone (Laura)

Frances Conroy (Dora)

Jessica Lange (Carmen)

Tilda Swinton (Penny)

Julie Delpy

Chloe Sevigny

Alexis Dziena

Written and directed by: Jim Jarmusch

Score: 1/2

The Review: If you can stay awake through the first 15 or 20 minutes, you'll likely enjoy this occasionally humorous character study of an aging Don Juan in search of closure (or possibly absolution). One suggestion though -- pay very close attention to the background action during the opening credits.

Bill Murray is Don Johnston (get it?), who gets an anonymous note that catalyzes a sea-change in his self-absorption and sends him out to search out several women from his past; his friend and neighbor (Wright) becomes his enthusiastic travel agent. The casting of Johnston's loves was done with care and wry humor: a widow (Stone) with an aptly named daughter Lolita (Dziena); an ex-flower child (Conroy) who is now a slightly confused realtor; an animal communicator (Lange) with an oddly protective receptionist (Sevigny); and an angry recluse (Swinton).

This has a lot of the flavor of Lost in Translation but without the sushi: silence, minimalist dialog, gaps and gaffs in embarrassed conversation, slow development, exhausted or tired looks. This time around, the mood cannot be laid at the foot of intercontinental jet lag, but belongs (as it probably did before, but was well concealed) to an unexamined life on the cusp of crisis.

(17-Sep-05)

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