Bill Murray
's subtle and understated style complements director
Jim Jarmusch
's
minimalist storytelling
in this
quirky
, but
deadpan
comedy. Many will relish
Broken Flowers
' refusal to serve up a resolution; others will find it frustrating. Inevitably, that's Jarmusch: like Murray's character journey, the rewards lie in the
small moments
that fade as much as the ones that linger. Finnish audio, hungarian subtitles, free entry.
Don Johnston (Bill Murray)
is an
emotionally blank middle-aged man
who has
never married
and lives a quiet, comfortable life thanks to shrewd investments in computers (though he doesn't use one himself). After being given his walking papers by his latest girlfriend,
Sherry (Julie Delpy)
, Don receives an
anonymous letter
informing him
he
fathered a son 19 years ago
, and that the boy wants to find his dad.
Not sure what to do, Don shows the note to
Winston (Jeffrey Wright)
, a neighbor who fancies himself an
amateur detective
. With Winston's help, Don narrows the list of possible mothers down to four women, and with a mixture of reluctance and resigned determination he sets out to find them. Armed with a CD of traveling music from Winston, Don pays unannounced visits to
Laura (Sharon Stone)
, an oversexed widow with a
libidinous teenage daughter (Alexis Dziena)
;
Dora (Frances Conroy)
, a stuffy real estate agent;
Penny (Tilda Swinton)
, an aging biker with no happy memories of Don; and
Carmen (Jessica Lange)
, a self-styled analyst for pets whose outward eccentricity disguises a firm inner stability.
