Maybe it's me; maybe I'm getting old
But yet again a supposedly clever, intelligent, smart movie about relationships and life has let me down. This is another one I missed at the theatre release but caught up with on DVD, only to end up yawning and wishing I hadn't bothered. Well, perhaps that's an exaggeration, I won't go that far. It's always interesting to watch a new movie, especially one you have specifically sought out, as I did Broken Flowers. But when it finished my response was a shrug of "So what?" And it co-starred one of my favorite actors too, the quite wonderful Jeffrey Wright (who was so superb in Angels in America) as Winston, which to me was an extra incentive to watch this. But even Wright failed to engage me this time. Perhaps that sums up my entire response to the film it never fully engaged me.
Bill Murray is an interesting guy, I enjoyed Ground Hog Day and I thought Lost in Translation very good. Even that supposed oceanography saga from a couple of years back was mildly entertaining (if only because I spent 7 years at sea on ocean survey ships and could giggle at how ludicrous the story was). But I'm beginning to get the feeling when I see Bill Murray on screen these days, that he's basically playing Bill Murray. That bemused, ironic guy, been everywhere, done everything, "I'm just a helpless passenger on the train of life" act, is wearing thin for me. I want to see him play a serial killer or a gay tap dancer. Not another middle aged Lothario.
Don Johnston (Murray) has just split up with another woman (an occurrence which seems to fill him with nothing more than apathy), when he receives a mysterious pink, girly letter in the mail, suggesting that he has a 19 year old son. Narrowing the mother down to a field of 4 potential brood mares, he is egged on by his neighbor Winston (Wright) to tour some of his old haunts looking for his son, the mother and perhaps his own life too.
Winston apparently fixes this trip up for Don, an act of altruism I found more than a little unlikely, and Don obediently does what he's told and trots off on his journey of discovery. Yes he's lived a fairly self centered life, yes he's failed to sustain a long term relationship. Am I supposed to feel sorry for him, or learn something appropriate about my own existence from this? Hell, the guy has a beautiful house, apparently lots of money (he can travel where and when he wants), a string of good looking sex partners and what looks like a pretty pleasant life. Watching this after a long and tedious week at work and chasing round after my own two kids, I envied the guy! Don't mess it up Don! Trash the letter and stay home! You're doing just fine the way you are
The film puzzled me, because I couldn't decide whether we were supposed to take it at face value Winston really does fix up trip and Don really can just up sticks and go at a moment's notice or whether there is supposed to be an element of magic here and it's really just a fairy tale. Which is possible, but either way I didn't really care much. Maybe I'm not intelligent enough to "get it?" One bright spot was the quite delightful naked Lolita, and Sharon Stone was good value too. Oh how I wanted to Don to engage in some reckless and possibly illegal fun with Lolita while mother cooked dinner, but he was too apathetic to even do that! The dialogue was all unreal and the outcome fairly unexciting.
If this was intended to be some kind of life lesson for us lesser mortals, I'm afraid I'm just too bitter and twisted to appreciate it. Dull. Again. Oh dear.
