Broken Flowers is a film that fans of the art will definitely respect, but it's a film that isn't quite appropriate for mass consumption. It's extremely stylized, it's well-acted (especially by the lead, Bill Murray), and it gets you to think--these are all great things.
The problem is that Broken Flowers is too obvious where it should be nuanced, and too nuanced when it should be more obvious. For instance, Jim Jarmusch makes symbols obvious that only a film nut will care about, but the film nut will be frustrated at having these small things so obvious. Then he'll make something pretty integral to the film fairly obscure and hard to pick up on. This makes for some confusing film watching.
ALL of the transitions are fade to black, which gives the film a dream-like feel. This is aided by the fact that the audience is left in the dark for almost all of the movie, and certain pieces seemingly have no purpose. In a way, the film reminded me of Mulholland Dr., with its random, confused elements thrown together to tell a story, with a little About Schmidt sprinkled in for good measure.
Bottom line: if you enjoy the nuts and bolts of filmmaking and enjoy interpreting symbols, this flick is for you. If you're anyone else, you might want to take a pass.
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2 comments:
Interesting review - I've enjoyed quite a few movies that Bill Murray has been in. I'll have to keep it in mind.
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I realled like this movie. I like just about all of Bill Murrays work especially the newer stuff. This movie is a bit hard to pick up for most but I think that's what makes me like it more. Cool blog by the way.
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