Broken Flowers | 
| Director: Jim Jarmusch
Actors: Bill Murray, Julie Delpy, Heather Simms, Brea Frazier, Jarry Fall
Category: DVD
Buy New: $2.47
New (6) Used (4) from $2.47
Rating:  207 reviews
Sales Rank: 38821
Format: Ntsc
Languages: English (Original Language), French (Original Language)
Rating: R (Restricted)
Region: 1
Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 7.1 x 5.4 x 0.6
UPC: 065935220404
EAN: 0065935220404
ASIN: B000C8Q978
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.com
Bill Murray gives yet another simple, seemingly effortless, yet illuminating performance in Jim Jarmusch's Broken Flowers. Don Johnston (Murray, Lost in Translation, Rushmore) receives an anonymous letter telling him that he has a 19 year old son who's looking for him. Don only decides to investigate at the prompting of his neighbor Winston (the indispensable Jeffrey Wright, Shaft, Basquiat), who not only tracks down the current addresses of the possible mothers, he plans Don's entire trip down to the rental cars. Almost against his will, Don finds himself knocking at the doors of four very different women (Sharon Stone, The Quick and the Dead; Frances Conroy, Six Feet Under; Jessica Lange, Sweet Dreams; and Tilda Swinton, The Deep End) who were once his lovers. Part road movie, part detective story, part existential meditation, Broken Flowers is even more minimalist than most Jarmusch movies (Stranger Than Paradise, Dead Man, Mystery Train)--anyone looking for an easy resolution should look elsewhere. But for anyone willing to let a movie be a poem as much as a story--i.e., let it observe behavior without explaining it--Broken Flowers will offer a wealth of mysteries, gestures, and Bill Murray's soulful eyes. It's a movie that's wonderfully eloquent about what's not being said. --Bret Fetzer
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| Customer Reviews: Read 202 more reviews...
The back of Bill Murray's head April 13, 2009
Dr. Christopher Coleman (HONG KONG)
The problems with Broken Flowers are not so much caused by the movie--although it is very slow paced, enough to drive some people insane--but by the marketing. This movie is not hilarious, it's not a comedy at all; that a film has a couple of moments where you laugh does not make it a comedy. Nor does the casting of a primarily comedic actor in the lead make it a comedy. When Murray re-made The Razor's Edge, he explicitly said, "This is not a comedy" to every talk show host who would listen. But the studio undercut him by sending along a clip of the only funny moment in the entire film. And so here as well. Murray does nothing to make this a comedy; he clearly wants to be taken as a 'serious' actor. But someone in marketing thought that would be the kiss of death. So they've labelled a dark study of a man alone as hilarious and a comedy; it's actually a tragedy. Murray's character is emotionally detached from everyone, and has no understanding of how to reconnect. I'm reminded of Camus. Murray rarely shows any expression at all; the director emphasizes this by showing repeated shots of the back of Murray's head. What happens in this film is that nothing happens. Those flowers are broken for a reason--exactly what that reason is we are never told, nor do we particularly need to know--and no florist's trick can ever heal them. Going to a film with wildly wrong expectations can ruin the experience for a lot of people--no one on the creative side was done any favors by Hollywood's relentless quest for the dollar.
more charming than funny March 21, 2009
a_poet_grows_in_brooklyn (Brooklyn, New York)
i was looking for opportunities to laugh out loud, but at the most i just smiled....bill has changed alot in the last ten years...making the successful transition from playing goofballs to sad old men...lost in translation was probably his apex....in this one, bill plays don johnston, an old don juan; don seems to realize what a joke it is to be an aging player, but in the end, doesn't change simply because he could never be anything else....jeffrey wright is good as winston, don's friend who plays detective, who send him on the trail to find his son's mother....sharon stone was great as the white trash milf, as was tilda swindon as don's hippie ex-girlfriend....the scenes with jessica lange and frances conroy were sad and painful to watch, because they were too true...especially jessica's character returning the flowers....ouch! don has an encounter with a young man who may or not be his son...and it is bittersweet..i liked the way jim jarsmuch used symbolism in this movie...the color pink...the pink roses....the cinematography...the opening scene showing an old movie about the death of don juan...and the ending scene...showing a cartoon character spinning the wheel of fortune....it's not a bad movie....i just would have liked a few more laughs.....
 The Great Hoax December 25, 2008
Surferofromantica (Singapore)
Great film of Bill Murray moping. Sort of like his Lost in Translation persona, or maybe even him in Rushmore. He's a middle-aged man in a track suit, he's had several women in his life. The day that one of them leaves him he gets a letter; he doesn't know which one of his ex-girlfriends it's from, but she says in the letter that she had his baby 20 years ago. With the help of his Ethiopian neighbour (cue opportunity to have Ethiopian jazz in the soundtrack) he works backwards and comes up with five names. So he goes to visit several of them to try and solve the "mystery." There's not much mystery, but there's an opportunity to film several episodes. The first one is the best - Sharon Stone, and her "daughter" Lolita, played by a magnetically horny Alexis Dziena. It goes downhill from there. A lot can happen to people in 20 years - some end up in loveless marriages with real estate developers, some become psychics, while others slum it as biker chicks. But life is long and good things can come of it if you're Bill Murray and you don't take things too seriously or get delusional about a son you may or may not have. There's always tomorrow. The film uses quite good songs in its soundtrack (including, briefly, Sleep), and the fantastic "There Is An End" by The Greenhornes with Holly Golightly. Great boogie woogie retro rock with cool old guitar plucking. Crazy, dad, crazy...
 What's not to like about Bill Murray? December 20, 2008
Winston (Canada)
Bill Murray's recent movies (Lost in translation, Broken flowers... etc) are amazing and fun to watch. I sense some sort of personal isolation and cheerful depression in all of them. This one was no exception. The whole movie was around figuring out the puzzles of the present time that are stemming from the past. The viewer is urged not to worry about the future so much. It's not here yet, but the past is making present and that's what this movie is talking about. I really felt for Don Johnston through the whole movie. In some instances, especially when he was beaten by the bikers, I loudly said "oh poor man". Then Bill Murray's acting is cool and this is one of his finest act recently. Looking forward to Murray's future movies.
Solid September 8, 2008
Cosmoetica (New York, USA)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Bill Murray is the closest thing to a modern Charlie Chaplin, not in being a filmmaker, but in creating an onscreen persona. His `dour schlemiel' is every bit as iconic as Chaplin's tramp. He has played the same basic character in films from Groundhog Day to Lost In Translation to his latest incarnation in Jim Jarmusch's latest film Broken Flowers. This film is one of those works of art that should be filed under `nice attempt', but is ultimately a failure. And it fails for the simplest of reasons that all bad films fail: a bad screenplay, which was written by Jarmusch himself.
Murray plays a former Lothario named Don Johnston, who made a fortune in personal computers, watches The Adventures Of Don Juan on tv (for all call him a Don Juan), and whose girlfriend Sherry (Julie Delpy) is leaving him. His Ethiopian friend and neighbor Winston (Jeffrey Wright), is a mystery writer and amateur detective. On the day Sherry leaves Don gets an unsigned letter in a pink envelope, typed in red ink, from a former girlfriend saying that twenty years ago he fathered her son, and he may be searching for him. Don is is pushed by Winston to search for the writer of the letter. The first of his ex-girlfriends he visits is Laura (Sharon Stone). She's a NASCAR widow, whose daughter Lolita (Alexis Dziena), is a gorgeous nymphet who nakedly tries to seduce Don (wow, what a shock!). She does not succeed, but Laura does (ah, film!- only in such a medium could a guy like Murray, and a cipher of a character like Don, have a prayer of bedding Sharon Stone- or her onscreen lookalike). Don, in Murrayvian fashion, never tells her his real reason for the trip, then later fantasizes about....of course, Lolita- yes, it's really that heavyhanded in its attempts at symbolism.
His second ex-lover is Dora (Frances Conroy), who, with her husband Ron (Christopher McDonald), are realtors of pre-fab homes. Again Murray equivocates and does not reveal the reason for his trip to see her. The nest woman on his list is New Age pet psychic Carmen (Jessica Lange), whose lesbian assistant (Chloe Sevigny) resents Don's intrusion. Carmen's so fruity that Don does not even attempt to really tell her why he stopped by. His fourth ex-lover is Penny (Tilda Swinton), a biker chick whose boyfriend punches Don out when she goes psycho just a minute after meeting him. A fifth lover is now dead, and he returns to his posh home, and Winston, unsatisfied....Others have detailed the rest of the film.... Jarmusch is still a daring director, but he seems to be in mid-life crisis mode, not knowing what he will do next, or what he should do.
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