BROKEN FLOWERS (R) ****

 

Directed by Jim Jarmusch. 105 minutes.

Starring Bill Murray, Jeffrey Wright, Tilda Swinton, Jessica Lange, Sharon Stone, Julie Delpy, Chloe Sevigny and Frances Conroy. Released by Focus Features.

 

Bill Murray has one of the most expressive faces in film today. He merely has to turn the corner of his mouth in one direction and we know his opinion of the situation in which he is involved. He only has to look ahead or roll his eyes slightly to the side and we know if he is gloomy or admiring how funny life can be sometimes. Murray started as a comedic actor, but he does not use his facial expressions for punch lines, though they can often be very funny. Instead, he comments on the scenes in his films through the way he looks at other characters or, quite often, away from other characters.

 

In recent years, there has been somewhat of a Bill Murray renaissance. Charlie’s Angels not included, Murray has starred in Rushmore, The Royal Tenenbaums and The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou with director Wes Anderson, as well as Hamlet, Cradle Will Rock and the lovely Lost in Translation. He has become sort of a Johnny Depp for baby boomers. With Broken Flowers, he has further extended his terrific resume of great choices and turns in a great, but subtle performance.

 

In the film, he plays Don Johnston, which makes him the constant butt of jokes for reasons obvious to film and television films and not so obvious for others. Johnston is a sad, lonely man, but arguably by choice. At the beginning of the movie, his latest girlfriend, played by Julie Delpy, storms out on him, leaving him to sit on the couch, watching black and white movies on television and listening to sad music. The other portion of his time seems to be spent hanging out with his neighbor, Winston (Jeffrey Wright, in a potential Best Supporting Actor nomination performance). Winston is an Ethiopian man with three jobs, five kids and a hobby of detective work. The film is a comedy, but does not poke fun at Winston’s character.

 

In fact, there are a number of offbeat people in Broken Flowers, but they are not the butt of jokes, but just seen whimsically as weird and funny things happen all around them. It is a difficult act to have a film with a character who is an animal communicator and another with a painting of her house on her wall and not poke fun at them. But maverick independent filmmaker Jim Jarmusch is the master of wry, deadpan humor. This film is often laugh out loud funny, but never cruel or condescending.

 

Johnston receives a letter in the mail that says he has a son with a former lover, who does not sign her name or leave a forwarding address. Winston, playing detective, sets up a trip for Don to visit five of his former girlfriends, with whom his past courtships may have resulted in a 20-year old son. Don was a former Don Juan, so, naturally, he is hesitant. His travels lead him to a graveyard and visits with ex-lovers played by Sharon Stone, who has a mischievous daughter named Lolita; Frances Conroy, who has a strange relationship with her real estate agent husband; Jessica Lange- the animal communicator; and a very angry Tilda Swinton.

 

In many ways, Broken Flowers resembles Alexander Payne’s About Schmidt, in that the film is about a man who realizes he has wasted his entire life during the course of a road trip. In Schmidt, Jack Nicholson’s character tried to make a go of a new life on the road in a Winnebago, while Don Johnston goes out looking for his former flames because he seems to have nothing else to do. During the course of his travels, he appears to get a better sense of the absurdity of the world and the difficulty of human relations, which is brilliantly executed by a twitch of Murray’s mouth as he observes two teeny boppers eyeing a good-looking young man on a bus. The film culminates with sort of a third act revelation in which Don confronts his real desires for connectedness with others and even gives a few words of wisdom to another weary traveler. Jarmusch, one of the great American independent filmmakers, delivers a hilarious, sad and whimsical experience with Broken Flowers and Bill Murray is the perfect choice to play Don, announcing his every heartache, hint of bemusement and exasperation through a simple facial twitch.