Broken Flowers

[spoiler]
Broken Flowers is a movie obsessed with examining impotence and generation. I thought it was one of Jarmusch's best movies in years, fusing his pristine style with humor, wit and a great soundtrack. He seems to work really well with emotions when they are poorly hidden, but nevertheless hidden, such as in the scene between Murray and the real estate couple. The opening shots introduce us to Don Johnston viewing "The Secret Life of Don Juan," a movie based on the book which the character of Don may be loosely based on, establishing the concern of inherited genres and tropes. Bill Murray, whose comedic dead-pan is used more effectively by Jim Jarmusch than by Sofia Coppola or Wes Anderson, is forced into an inverted Film Noir situation, which Murray's character jokes about in the movie, comparing Winston the Sherlock Holmes, etc, in which he investigates not some criminal mystery, but a mystery which reaches into his own uncomfortable life. This inversion turns noir on its head; Sam Spade (or Dolomite) found escape in the pursuit of other people's secrets, not their own.

The character of Winston comes up to help push Don into examining a mystery uncomfortably close to his own concerns, that of whether or not he may have a son. What follows is a sort of picaresque journey from one old flame to the next, trying to find the possible mother, but rather than being unrelated, each encounter reminds him of how tangential he was in his ex-lovers lives. Don Johnston confronts not women who love him, but who are lost in various ways, angry, damaged or hopeless in ways that he has shielded himself from by hopping from one relationship to the next.

The first house comes with a bizarre Nabokov reference whose bearing on the plot I am not sure what to make of. Don quickly becomes the man of the house, but the spectre of the dead father is confronted. Don looks for his legacy, but sees only echoes of his own fear of impotence; the dead husband who cannot control his nymph daughter; the childless real-estate husband who sells souless McHouses; the husbandless (lesbian?) cat-whisperer; the impoverished and tarnished "Penny"; and finally, the dead. Wifeless, all he has is this; the suspicion that any young man may be his son. What he settles with is not a happy comittment to another woman, but a realization of the deep uncertainty and rootlessness of his life. In the final scene, shot beautifully by Jarmusch, Don is much a like a ghost realizing he is a ghost, and as a viewer we are brought full around to the beginning of the movie, appreciating, perhaps, the sadness Murray displayed while sitting and watching a movie. Another great flick by Jarmusch. And speaking of ghosts, if you ever wonder what it would be like to see Jarmusch to write and direct a hypothetical sequel to Ghostbusters, then here you are.