Broken Flowers (2005)

"A miracle! Very, very funny! One of the best of the year.  The Boston Globe
"Funny, Tender andiGenerous.  A.O. Scott, The New York Times
"Bill Murray in one of his best performances.   Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times
"***! A masterpiece!  Glenn Whipp, LA Daily News

Editor's Note With BROKEN FLOWERS, staunchly independent filmmaker Jim Jarmusch delivers one of his most pleasing, accessible pictures. Winner of the 2005 Grand Prix at the Cannes Film Festival, the film tells the story of Don Johnston (Bill Murray), a man overflowing with wealth but void of emotion. On the day that his most recent girlfriend (Julie Delpy) has given up on him for good, he learns, through an anonymous letter, that he might be the father of a 19-year-old boy. Spurned into action by his wannabe private eye neighbor, Winston (Jeffrey Wright), Don sets off on a personal journey to visit the former partners who may or may not have mothered his child. They include the flighty Laura (Sharon Stone), whose daughter Lolita (Alexis Dziena) certainly lives up to her name; the uptight Dora (Frances Conroy), who has settled into a sterile life with her chipper husband, Ron (Christopher McDonald); the strangely distant Carmen (Jessica Lange), who makes a living as an "animal communicator;" and, finally, Penny (Tilda Swinton), a hard-edged biker who is the least happiest to see Don. Each confrontation leaves Don feeling more lost than the last, spinning him into an even greater state of apathetic confusion. In typical Jarmusch fashion, he wrote the script for BROKEN FLOWERS with his casting firmly in mind: only Murray could play this role. The result showcases Murray's brilliance as a less-is-more presence. Jarmusch also gives some of Hollywood's most talented female actresses roles they can relish. A hundred percent Jarmusch, BROKEN FLOWERS is a wry, tender, and bittersweet portrait of a man who is drifting aimlessly through life.

	Bill Murray
	Frances Conry
	Jeffrey Wright
	Sharon Stone
	Frederick Elmes - Cinematographer
	Jay Rabinowitz - Editor
	Jim Jarmusch - Director
	Jim Jarmusch - Writer
	Jim Jarmusch, et. al. - Producer
	Mark Friedberg - Production Designer

Rolling Stone
"BROKEN FLOWERS is a rare film that richly rewards the attention it demands." 08/11/2005 p.81

Entertainment Weekly
"Murray adjusts his bearing with the tiniest of calibrations, obviously made comfortable by Jarmusch's richly evident confidence in his own shaggy-dog storytelling." 08/12/2005 p.55-56

New York Times
"With BROKEN FLOWERS, Jim Jarmusch's sly, touching new film, Bill Murray reaffirms his status as the quietest comic actor in movies today." 08/05/2005 p.E1-E23

Premiere
"[S]oulful....[A film] that offers a lot of pleasure and even a kind of wisdom." 09/01/2005 p.52-53

USA Today
"BROKEN FLOWERS exudes some of the twinkle-eyed, deadpan humor from LOST IN TRANSLATION....FLOWERS is smartly observational." 08/05/2005 p.3E

Sight and Sound
"[T]his elegant yet accessible film leaves you thinking about and felling for its opaque characters..." 11/01/2005 p.53

Uncut
Ranked #3 in Uncut's Best Films Of 2005 -- "[A] stark, funny and deeply moving study of age, memory, loss and love." 01/01/2006 p.82-83

Movieline's Hollywood Life
"[T]he film is a paean to Murray's unique brand of menopausal bittersweetness." 01/01/2006 p.104

James Berardinelli's ReelViews 7 of 10
Broken Flowers shows the kind of offbeat spin that a quirky independent director like Jim Jarmusch can put on a Hollywood standby: the road picture. Using equal parts understated drama and comedy, Jarmusch takes us on a trip through the present to remind us that the past is gone and roads not taken can never be explored. Those who like tidy endings and demand a sense of closure will leave the film frustrated. It tells a story, but there's no resolution, nor is one needed. In the end, solving Broken Flowers' mysteries becomes an irrelevancy when considering where the journey has taken us. - James Berardinelli

Chicago Sun-Times 10 of 10
No actor is better than Bill Murray as doing nothing at all, and being fascinating while not doing it. Buster Keaton had the same gift for contemplating astonishing developments with absolute calm. Buster surrounded himself with slapstick, and in Broken Flowers Jim Jarmusch surrounds Murray with a parade of formidable women. - Roger Ebert