.: Roberts' Reviews - Movie Reviews :.

Out of the countless mistakes that I have made this week alone, none stands out as prominent as when I asked a buddy if he wanted to join me to see the new Bill Murray film, Broken Flowers. I knew fair well of my buddy's likes and dislikes. He is a Michael Bay kinda guy. Likes things blowing up good. Real good. If a movie has more than a page of dialogue before the next nude scene or car chase, he gets restless and begins to chew on the ice in his oversized Pepsi or shut his eyes as if to use the darkened theatre as an opportune time to get caught up on the four minutes of sleep he was so dearly lacking.

But there I was, standing in front of him and asking if he wanted to accompany me on one of my week-end stops. No sooner did the words come out of my mouth and I knew exactly the misstep to which I had taken. Still, the offer could not have been rescinded, so at the theatre we did meet. The experience was both painful and rewarding, but more on that a little later.

Broken Flowers stars Murray as Don Johnston (with a 't'), a quiet yet successful man that for one reason or another, has a way with the ladies. On the same day that his current flame, Sherry (Julie Delpy) leaves due the relationship lacking any sense of direction, a pink envelope arrives in the mail which reveals to Don that 20 years ago he fathered a son he never knew. The letter is unsigned and reveals little as to the author's identity.

But upon showing the letter to his mystery story loving neighbor Winston (played wonderfully by Jeffrey Wright) an itinerary is drawn up for Don to visit four possible writers of the letter of whom he had relations twenty years previous. Reluctant but curious, pessimistic yet appeasing to his neighbors efforts of arrangements, Don sets out the following day in an effort to revisit the past and discover a future.

The first of four stops puts him unannounced at the front door of old flame Laura (Sharon Stone) and daughter Lolita (scene stealer Alexis Dziena). Twenty years later, widowed Laura still shines with youthful sexual energy. Don eats with the family and strategically asks obscure questions in an attempt to self determine if Laura was at the root of his journey. Fairly convinced she was not the writer of the letter, Don leaves in the morning and moves on to former lover number two, three and four.

With each encounter the women to which he was involved two decades earlier seem more distant and more eccentric than the last. Francis Conroy (Six Feet Under) plays a real estate agent that lives her life with her husband in what can best be described as a glass case. Jessica Lange (Blue Sky) is some who has created a business communicating with animals and Brea Frazier lives in the back woods with nothing more than the shirt on her back and boots on her feet. Giving Don a glimpse as to what life might have been like had he maintained a relationship with any of the four women visited becomes just as important as his search for the mother of his 20-year old child. And Bill Murray does an extraordinary job of portraying a man quietly observing the life that was never meant to be.

Broken Flowers ranks right up there with Lost In Translation as Murray's best work. But just as Translation was a hit with critics but largely lost among casual film watchers, Broken Flowers will even more so have infrequent visitors to the dark houses wondering what all the hubbub is about. That is largely due to the directing style of Jim Jarmusch (Coffee & Cigarettes). An independent filmmaker through and through, Jarmusch knows how he wants to tell a story and takes his time doing it. There are long pauses in the movie with Murray just sitting on his couch or staring out a balcony. There are multiple scenes of Don on an airplane or just in the car driving to his next destination. With each scene lacking dialogue, I was captivated by getting into the mind of main character and thinking about what he could be thinking about during his down time.

But where I was intrigued and almost mesmerized by the moments of silence, my viewing partner was less enthusiastic. His shifting in his seat signifying his level of boredom culminated with a two time ribbing by yours truly to wake his snoring ass back up. For him the experience was 'painstaking'.

But for those of us who can enjoy a movie that doesn't spell every last detail out for the audience. For those of us that can get involved with characters that speak only when necessary. For those of that enjoy pace to a film, even if it is not of the rapid fire variety, Broken Flowers will be a film to re-visit and a film that might make it on a few Best of.lists by the end of the year.