Broken Flowers

If you like happy endings -- or at least endings that are resolved, crisp and finished, make no plans to go see the new movie by Jim Jarmusch, "Broken Flowers"(http://www.brokenflowersmovie.com/home.html) starring Bill Murray.

On the other hand, if you enjoy watching a movie that requires thought and attention to detail, then don't walk, run to see this.

Not a movie for the MTV generation. Not a lot of action or skin or even a lot of dialogue. Ain't it cool?

In fact, most of those in the crowd in which I was viewing this movie with - we were down in the lower part of the theater with "Dukes of Hazzard" still queing up lines and lines and lines of those 25 years and under--- stomped out of the movie quizzically. Some were even angry. One guy even commented, "8 bucks for that?"

Maybe we're too focused on seeing movies that figure it all out for us and leave us with a finished ending. But Bill Murray's last two films, including "Lost in Translation" have a lot to tell us about the unfinished business of mid-life and aging. That is, there is a lot left to be discovered.

For me personally, I loved the layering of dialogue, visuals and cinematography that create the story for me to unwrap and delight in. I loved that Bill Murray's character doesn't act as much as he reacts to life and all that it has given him. I loved mostly that I left the theater trying to figure out all the clues and if I got them all or not.

What I figured out (what I think!) is that the 5 women in the movie represent the 5 decades of a man's life (50 years, which I imagine is what the age of the character placed by Murray). Sexual conquest, intellectual pursuit, partying and rocking, drugs and love, and of course, death, which conquers us all. Don Johnston/Don Juan/Don Jonson -- itself a comment on a man's life -- illustrates a man's life lived for all the things that create a sense of completeness, but at the end it is his shell of a life that creates the chaotic pain in which we see Murray's character. I'm not much of a philosopher but that's my report, Sherlock. (see the movie to understand this line.)

There are some amazing one-liners delivered by Murray that are gems. Unfortunately, most of them are given away in the Trailer so that when you see them in the film they lack the punch they could have had.

Still, I'd recommend "Broken Flowers" to my artsy friends. For all the others, there's always Dukes of Hazzard. Sadly, there seems to be few in-between choices.