Broken Flowers (DVD)

Author's product rating:   

Did you enjoy it?	Liked it
Story	Good
Characters / Performances	Good
Special Effects	Good
How does it compare to similar films?	Good

Advantages:	Good performances, intriguing story, quite witty
Disadvantages:	A bit slow in parts, the ending is a bit sudden

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

- Introduction -

I can't remember where I first heard about this movie but having seen Bill Murray in a few movies over the last 10 years or so, I decided I was interested in seeing this if I could get it on DVD fairly cheap. I seem to be quite keen on somewhat black comedies and I like his dry humour and wit, so I thought this sounded like something I might enjoy. I read that the director, Jim Jarmusch, wrote this movie with him specifically in mind and that he would only go ahead with it, if he agreed to star in it and I was curious to see how the movie had been made specifically with him in mind, so when I saw a seller offering the DVD in as new condition for under £4 including postage, I knew I wanted to get it and see what it was like.

- Main Credits (non-actors, which are mentioned further on in the review) -
Source:- IMDB (see:- http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0412019/fullcredits)

Director - Jim Jarmusch
Writer - Jim Jarmusch
Inspired by an idea from - Bill Raden & Sara Driver
Producers - Jon Killik, Stacey Smith,
Associate Producer - Karen L. Thorson
Cinematography - Frederick Elmes

- Story (incl. main acting cast) -

The movie starts by showing somebody (you can't see their face) posting a pink envelope which goes through the US postal system as the credits are shown at the very start. Then your shown a postwoman delivering this pink envelope along with some other random mail, to a rather regular looking house. Inside is a rather bored looking guy who's the main character, Don (Don Johnston (Johnston with a 't', not THAT Don Johnston, as he points out in the movie) played by Bill Murray). Things don't start off too well as his girlfriend spots the pink envelope and presumes its from another girlfriend, though Don had no knowledge of the letter and denies it, though its too late and she leaves in a huff, leaving him to sulk at home, watching a black and white movie on TV until he falls asleep on the couch. That is until the phone goes and he gets up and decides to check the mail properly.

He decides to take it next door to a friends house, where he goes to talk to his friend, Winston (played by Jeffrey Wright). Thats when he opens the letter and reads the pink letter inside the pink envelope, which turns out to tell him, or more warn him, that he has a son who is now 19 and was born as a result of an ended relationship. It says that he has left home on a quest and that they think he has gone to try and track down his father and so they felt they should warn him.

His friend Winston, on hearing this letter, is immediately interested and vows to help Don out, though Don is very sceptical at first and pretty much writes it off as being some cruel practical joke. All the same, Winston encourages Don to write down a list of all the people he was with 19 or 20 years ago, so that he can then use the internet to try and track down there whereabouts. He reluctantly goes back home and starts to write a list of those he was with at the time and passes it back to Winston.

Later on, the two of them meet up in a local cafe and Winston reveals that he has made travel plans from the details Don gave him, including plane and car hire bookings and he pushes him to take it up and travel to see and meet the potential mothers. He gives him advice, saying that he must always bring them pink flowers and keep an eye out for a typewriter, a pink typewriter. As the letter was written on pink paper and in a pink envelope, pink appears to be a running theme, so I suppose thats why. Don is still pretty sceptical and not too keen, being unsure whether he'd want to re-visit these people from so long ago but after mulling it over at his now rather lonely seeming house (he is single and has no kids and thus probably feels like he is missing something and would be interested in meeting his potential son), he decides to give it a go and takes up his friends travel plans.

So he travels from one place to another, tracking down his past partners and trying to establish who may be the mother of his previously unknown son. Will he find out? was this just some kind of a joke? what will happen when these women see him suddenly turn up, after all this time? what else might he find out? will he find what he's been missing?

This is what 'Broken Flowers' is about.

Also I should probably mention here, just to add a bit more info. in terms of the main cast, that the potential mothers are played by Sharon Stone, Frances Conroy, Jessica Lange and Tilda Swinton. See the main credits link posted above if you want to see the full list of cast and crew credits from the ever useful site that is IMDB (Internet Movie DataBase).

- Genre/Themes etc. -

This is a fairly dark and thought provoking comedy, or I'd classify it as possibly more of a slow drama with some comedy moments. The comedy comes from the witty remarks that Don gives to other people.

The movie is about one mans curiosity and search for something that they don't know if even exists and the re-assessment of past relationships and whats become of those people since that time.

I think it is definately thought provoking too, especially where the end is concerned, where the question/theme of whether you can connect with the past really comes to a head.

The movie is shown in scenes, where at the end of each scene it fades into black before a new one quickly starts, showing a different location, later that day or the following day, kind of like in the same format as plays are done I suppose.

- Music -

Something I should probably at least mention is the music present in this movie. In the movie, Winston gives Don a CD to play in the hire car (which he isn't particularly pleased with, saying something along the lines of 'why couldn't I get at least a Porsche for a trip like this but a Taurus?!'), while he's travelling. Some of the music played is defined as romantic jazz I spot when I look up the soundtrack, im not good at defining the type really so ill go with that. Some of the tracks include 'There is an End' by Holly Golightly, 'Yegelle Tezeta' by Mulatu Astatke, 'Tell Me Now So I Know' by Holly Golightly, 'Gubelye' by Mulatu Astatke, 'Unnatural Habitat' by The Greenhornes and 'I Want You' by Marvin Gaye.

Also if your interested, you can listen to clips of the tracks from the soundtrack either through the official site, mentioned below, or at this site:- http://www.iclassics.com/productDetail?contentId=64204

- My Thoughts/Opinions -

The movie is pretty slow in places but it does well for the type of movie that it is. It is more of a philisophical, thought-provoking movie with some amusing quips put in for good measure, than anything too fast and hilarious but you maybe already guessed that given the main star involved and the basic story.

Although I suppose you could say that this is a bit of a middle aged movie, if there is such a thing!, I still enjoyed it. I am quite keen on sometimes watching movies that do really make you wonder about things and this one definately does. I certainly hope that I don't end up Don's age and on my own, he definately appears to be a fairly sad character, though he may not admit it himself, you know the usual sort of blankly emotional character that Murray tends to play.

I agree with the director that this movie does suit Murray and he does play the role very well. I've been a fan of him since I grew up with the Ghostbusters movies (of course a very different type of movie(s) altogether but they were some 20 years ago!) and then when I saw Groundhog Day, which happens to be my favourite movie, or joint favourite with another which he isn't in. I'm contemplating doing a review for Groundhog Day at some point, if I can do it justice! but anyway, back to this movie...

I thought that the character was quite intriguing, every person that he met sort of told you a bit more about him. It turns out that he used to be a bit of a 'Don Juan' as Winston quips, though he's not keen on that name/phrase at all! and it seems to go against how he appears to be now... the sort of stale and semi emotionless character that he's shown as, I suppose it teaches you that this is what happens if you stay single for so long! well I don't know about that but you know what I mean... (lol) he's seen wearing sunglasses and appearing quite mysterious when in the airport and on the plane and buses, trying to ignore the chitter chatter going on around him, when he often has flashbacks to what he's seen and discovered so far, being forced to think back to what happened so long ago probably unsettles him quite alot...

It is quite an 'artsy' movie, with the symbolism with the colour pink and the feature of the story being shown in a number of scenes, all fading to black, as already mentioned. It doesn't have that big a mainstream feel and so its no surprise that I hear it did well at some film festivals.

One thing I can't really decide on whether I like or not, though, is the ending. I can kind of see that it wraps things up and not in the way you perhaps think (I won't spoil it, buy the DVD if you want to find out - you can get it cheap enough online it seems). I didn't feel that sure quite what the viewer was supposed to think or take away from it, if you know what I mean. I was kind of hopeful that there may be more at the end, where instead it seemed to be another scene ending and the 'directed by' credit appeared with the rest of the credits following, so nope, that was the end! hmmm... im not sure about that. I *think* I get it but im not totally sure, it does definately make you wonder and question what happened at the end.

That and the fact that the movie did feel like it moved a little bit too slow, is why I rated this with 4 stars and not 5.

- Certificate -

Broken Flowers is rated 15. This is for some strong language and one really pretty brief scene of nudity, thats all thats mentioned on the back of the DVD box anyway. There is also one scene where Winston says he's smoking a joint and Don briefly joins in, so there is a drug reference there and there is one mild scene of violence, which is hardly worth mentioning but I figured I might as well put that here. I'd imagine anyone younger than 15 would find this really rather boring anyway and wouldn't be much interested anyway, it is something more for adults with adult themes (of re-evaluating things in your middle age years and so on).

- DVD -

The DVD is shown in 16:9 widescreen format and only offers subtitles in English for the hard of hearing but even that is only available for the movie. Apart from that, it has a few extra/bonus/special (whatever you wanna call them) features and these are as follows -

- Extended bus scene - c. 3 mins. the full scene with the two teenage girls chatting on the bus, pretty boring really, kinda random.

- Broken Flowers: Start to Finish (Outtakes) - This is more of an 'artsy' semi documentary, I felt. It mainly shows clapperboards starting takes, more than actual outtakes, though there are some midly amusing ones. This lasts for about 7 and a half minutes.

- Farmhouse: Behind the Scenes with Jim Jarmusch Commentary - The commentary given here sounds like your listening over the radio. He talks about the movie in general and how he got the actresses who played the potential mothers, to be motivated in their role and believe they could be the mother of this mans son. He also talks about how he'd like people to react to the ending, after having seen it (in a sort of open ended kind of a way) and he says that he'd like people not to think of the movie as being a light movie based on old romance but it being more substantial with the theme exploring the notion of there being something missing and so on. This commentary lasts for about 4 minutes 20 secs and throughout filming of the farmhouse scene/part of the movie is shown, which gives it again quite an 'artsy' kind of a feel, that and the fact that the commentary sounds like its given over the radio, giving it a kind of gravelly(sp?) feel.

- US & International trailers - the title says it all

- Soundtrack information - Basically just a screen advertising the soundtrack, with some artists that appear in the soundtrack, mentioned.

I've found that there are quite a few second hand copies of this floating around, try somewhere like Amazon marketplace or Ebay where you should find it pretty easy to get a copy for £5 or under including postage and packaging, which isn't too bad, or you can definately get it new for under £10.

- Official Website -

http://www.brokenflowersmovie.com/

The official US website is really an advert for the DVD and soundtrack (somewhat surprisingly enough!), with a link to purchase the DVD. It has some clips from the movie, a link to buy the soundtrack, a link to sign up to get email updates from Universal Studio's Home Entertainment on DVD releases and a music player, where you can hear clips of some of the tracks played in the movie or that feature in the soundtrack. In this section the site, there's also a link to some quotes from critics about the movie, some photo stills (a small photo gallery) and a link to view the trailer.
Back on the main site home page, if you click on the flashing pink envelope, you can find info. on the movie (the main story) and a link to production info., you'll find there a Q&A with the producers and you can find a couple more clips by clicking on the character name your interested in, towards the bottom of the main screen.
As with most official film websites, this is a Flash based site and so it is pretty chock full of graphics and other elements that will take a while to load on a slow connection, so its only really recommended for people with broadband or otherwise fast connections, otherwise you might have to wait a while for pages etc. to load.

- Conclusions -

The movie was what I expected it to be, Murray playing another rather down trodden and somewhat lost seeming but yet philosophical character. The story was intriguing and the acting was all top notch, in my opinion. All the characters added something and it all led to what I hoped would be a particularly interesting and good ending, which im not entirely convinced of. I suppose it would be difficult to think of what an alternative ending might be, but there was something that made me think it ended just that bit too soon and that slightly disappointed me.

Apart from that and the fact that I felt it dragged a bit too slowly, I think it was a pretty well made movie and its worth seeing, especially if your a fan of Murray.

I felt that overall it was a good movie but it wasn't excellent, its worth seeing but its not something your probably going to want to see repeatedly, in my own opinion, of course.

I hope you found my review useful in deciding whether to buy this on DVD, thanks for reading!