The Wake

Do you like movies with super-happy endings where everything comes together all nice and tidy? Do you like over the top, sophomoric comedy? Have you been waiting all your life for Bill Murray to do another movie like Caddy Shack? Then don’t bother seeing Broken Flowers. Not only will you be disappointed, you just might spontaneously combust from frustration. For the rest of you, let’s continue.

In Broken Flowers, out now on DVD, Don Johnston (Murray) is a past-his-prime ladies man who has just been left by his latest girlfriend. To further confuse things, he receives an unsigned letter claiming that he fathered a son nearly 20 years earlier. Don’s amateur sleuth neighbor (the incredible Jeffrey Wright) convinces Don to track down the women he had been with around that time and look for clues pointing to which one wrote the anonymous letter and presumably the mother of his child. Don less than willingly agrees and begins a road trip through his past relationships.

This plot setup could very well be used as an Adam Sandler mid-life crisis movie. Sandler’s character would head out on the road and gut-busting, mindless hilarity would ensue. In the end, we might even get an easily digestible lesson on monogamy or what it means to find true love. Wouldn’t that be great? Like a Frank Capra movie starring Jim Carrey! Actually, I enjoyed The Majestic…and I digress.

Broken Flowers is not that movie. It has plenty of humor, though it’s very subtle and situational. There are few sight gags and they all serve characterizing purposes. The film takes a close look at what it means to move on and what it means to live a stagnant life. The film doesn’t feed easy answers but instead leaves almost everything up to the viewers’ interpretation. The performances are equally subtle, and at times, I actually failed to recognize certain actors (Sharon Stone, Chloe Sevigny) as they had buried themselves so deeply in their roles.

With that said, one viewer’s subtle is another one’s lethargic. The pacing is slow and not always deliberate. If Murray’s other subtle movie, Lost in Translation, didn’t hold your attention then don’t expect Broken Flowers to be any different. This one doesn’t even have a drunk karaoke scene. Or Scarlett Johansson…and I digress again.

Like Lost in Translation, Broken Flowers seems to have been made to watch on a lazy, lonely afternoon. It won’t appeal to most movie goers but for those who relish understated humor and the performances that go along with it, writer/director Jim Jarmusch’s film should be an enjoyable experience. For everyone else, let’s keep our hopes up for that Adam Sandler mid-life crisis movie.