Broken Flowers Review

I was unfortunately disappointed by Broken Flowers, the new independent movie starring Bill Murray. I found it funny at times in a very deadpan and/or pathetic way. The acting was not at fault at all. All the actors did a great job. It just felt too self-important a movie for what it had to say. The director was clearly in love with his camera, which made for beautiful shots, but it seemed for the sake of nice shots rather than tell a story. The overall story was that Bill Murray found out he may have a son but is not sure who the mother is. So he goes back to visit them to investigate this mystery. It's another of those man-in-a-midlife-crisis story. A friend, who came to see it with me, said: "It feels like "Sideways" and "About Schmidt" mixed together but much inferior to both those movies." I have to agree. I love both of the latter movies because they were about more than just midlife crisis. Others could be touched by it. In this movie, Bill Murray is put in all these odd situations where he must confront former flames. But nothing happens, not even from an introspective point of view. It's slow paced, which I usually don't mind, but here it felt like it dragged on for no good reason. I was hoping for another "Lost in Translation", which was a wonderful reflection on loneliness, but sadly, it ain't. It wasn't a bad movie but it was a satisfying movie either.

At least, the evening wasn't a total bust. I saw a friend I hadn't seen in a while, and we rifted on books, TV shows, and movies. It was fun.