Broken Flowers


I saw the Jim Jarmusch/Bill Murray film Broken Flowers yesterday.

It's about an aging Don Juan type in a reluctant series of encounters with women from his past. It sort of takes Bill Murray's Lost in Translation character one step further (more terse, downcast, introverted, somewhat less funny). And with Jarmusch's typical dry minimalism, it does leave you wanting Translation's warm touches. Very Raymond Carver dialogue: repressed, awkward silences punctuated by barely restrained berserk display and sexual tension.

It's slow... ok too slow at times, even tedious, but a certain banality is a big part of the point. And many of the nuances keep percolating for a while after. I'd call it art that forces you to ratchet down to its gear, kind of like Kubrick's Eyes Wide Shut (which I liked but most people seemed to hate).

Almost forgot, the soundtrack music is very cool, mostly heard as a mix CD that Murray's Ethiopian neighbor gives him. Check out Mulatu Astatke, the elder statesman of Ethiopian jazz/pop/funk.

Home

Posted: Mon - August 15, 2005 at 11:06 PM          

©