Broken Flowers

Starring Bill Murray, Jeffrey Wright, Sharon Stone, Jessica Lange, Frances Conroy, Tilda Swinton, Julie Delpy, Chloe Sevigny

Rated R

             “Broken Flowers” opened on my birthday – and I couldn’t have received a better gift. The film requires an audience with patience and of a certain age that they can relate to the lead character. Yes, some audiences will be bored. That’s fine – send them to the critically acclaimed “Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo.”

            Bill Murray is Don Johnston, a rich loner who seems to have a new girlfriend every month. His latest (Julie Delpy) simply walks out of his door. Don doesn’t get out much, but he does enjoy spending time with Winston (Jeffrey Wright), his neighbor who seems to be obsessed with solving mysteries.

            When Don receives a letter in the mail that says he has a son, he is at first uninterested. Winston, however, makes Don list all of the women who could possibly be the mother, since the letter has no signature or return address. And so Don begins a road trip finding these women and searching for a son that may not even exist…and a lot more.

I grew up laughing enormously at Bill Murray comedies, such as “Caddyshack,” “Ghostbusters,” and “What About Bob?” My favorite Murray, however, is the disgruntled, middle-age version that he has played recently (to a different degree) in “Lost in Translation,” “The Life Aquatic,” and now “Broken Flowers.” Murray carries the movie much as Jack Nicholson did with “About Schmidt,” and the result is terrific.  

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