Broken Flowers DVD Review (Bill Murray) Empire Movies

BROKEN FLOWERS DVD REVIEW

Broken Flowers
(Universal Studios Home Entertainment)

The Movie

The Extras

Reviewed by

7.5/10

5/10

Liam

The past few years have seen a lot of different roles from Bill Murray - at least different from the ones we've come to expect. The 80s brought us classics like Stripes, Caddyshack and Ghostbusters. Lately we've seen movies like Lost in Translation, The Royal Tenenbaums and now Broken Flowers.

In Broken Flowers, Murray plays a Don Juan-type character (strangely enough named Don) who has spent his life loving many, many different women. But one day, he gets an anonymous letter in the mail indicating that he has a grown son from a relationship several years ago. So, what was his quiet life becomes a search for the son he never knew he had. With the help of his sleuthing neighbor (Jeffrey Wright), he compiles information about all his past flames during that time in his life. With information from the internet about where they live (including maps to their homes!) Don sets out to solve the mystery. Along the way he visits women played by the likes of Sharon Stone, Frances COnroy, Jessica Lange and Tilda Swinton. Does he find his son? Does he come to terms with the way he's spent his life? Will he ever make another Ghostbusters? These are just some of the questions raised in Broken Flowers.

You've gotta love Bill Murray. He gave a great performance worthy of some sort of recognition. As for the rest of the cast, I was equally impressed. Normally, I'd spit at any movie even remotely associated with Sharon Stone, but she wasn't all that bad. I especially liked her free-spirited Lolita-ish daughter in this movie! (And like Don being a Don Juan, the Lolita-ish character is oddly enough named Lolita!) Swinton was also great, although her screen time amounts to only a couple of minutes. Jeffrey Wright played really well off Murray and I thought his character could easily have his own movie. Conroy and Lange were also okay, I guess.

Bonus features on this DVD include "Girls on the Bus" which is a series of outtakes/improvs featuring a couple of girls who appeared in the movie - as you can probably guess they were on a bus. "Broken Flowers: Start to Finish" is a series of shots and outtakes from the making of the movie mostly involving the clapper that's used to mark a scene. In the "Farmhouse" feature, we go to the farmhouse scene from the movie featuring Tilda Swinton where we hear from director Jim Jarmusch (in what sounds like a telephone interview) about his thoughts on filmmaking and his ideas on this film in particular. There's also the film's theatrical trailer and some information about the soundtrack.

I enjoyed this movie but I could see how some audiences might not enjoy it (ie. those type of people who like a nice happy ending that answers all your lingering questions). It's just not that sort of movie, and could easily leave a bad taste in your mouth so beware.

Features
Outtakes with Bill Murray, Behind the Scenes with Cast and Crew, Extended Scene

Video
Widescreen (1.78:1)

Audio
English Dolby Digital 5.1

Subtitles
English SDH, French, Spanish

Release Date
January 3, 2006

Rating
R

Length
106 mins.

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