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PLOT: A bachelor leading a nothing kind of life gets an anonymous letter that says he has a teenage son from a previous romance. But who sent the letter? Our sadsack hero embarks on a cross-country quest to look up four former flames (go ahead -- say that six times fast) and see if he can solve the mystery of his own life.
In Broken Flowers, Bill Murray plays a guy named Don Johnston. He's often ribbed for having the same name as a movie star.
As parallels go, however, the "Don Johnson" who really is a movie star is a little shopworn (with all due respect), a bit past his glory days and far away from the flashy, cool guy lifestyle he once epitomized. Murray's name in Broken Flowers is a small thing, but it seems to telegraph a lot of information about who he is and where he's been.
Broken Flowers begins with Murray's girlfriend (Julie Delpy) leaving him. Why? Uhnnn ... who knows. As Don, Murray plays a bachelor living in a chic, pricey, sterile atmosphere. His house is clean and empty. He made a lot of money in computers, so he no longer needs to work. No family. No girlfriend. No job. No interests. Just about everything in his life has ground to a complete halt.
One day, Don gets an anonymous letter on pink paper. It's from a former lover who says that she and Don had a child together, a son who is now 19. The letter also says that this young man might be coming to Don's house to meet him.
But which of his former lovers could the letter be from? With the help of his neighbour (Jeffrey Wright, playing a working stiff whose large, loving family is an obvious contrast), Don sets out on a huge road trip to find out which of four former girlfriends might have sent the letter.
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He shows up at each destination completely unannounced and clutching a bouquet of pink flowers. First, he encounters his old flame Laura (Sharon Stone), now a widow living with her teenage daughter Lolita. From her fake designer purse to her work as a closet organizer, Laura is someone you recognize at once. Stone gives a lovely performance.
So too will you recognize the sad and frightened Dora (Frances Conroy), the next former girlfriend, and the prickly animal psychic Carmen (Jessica Lange), not to mention the furious hillbilly beauty Penny (Tilda Swinton).
Much as we liked looking at Broken Flowers, it's a little too indie-clever for our taste. It's also rather sad, visual jokes and ironic humour notwithstanding. Lest we forget, this is a story about a man beginning to understand the wasteland that is his life.
What's intriguing about Broken Flowers is the ambiguity at the core of the story. Any of the women could have sent the letter, and much as our hero, Don, would like to know who his son is -- or even if he really has one -- there are no easy answers here. Trouble is, Don doesn't seem to grasp that it's not all about him until the very end. There's an all-male point of view to this movie that will be off-putting to some viewers. Fifty percent, say.
(This film is rated 14-A)