Broken Flowers

After 25 years as a screwball comedic actor, Bill Murray has found a sublime second wind playing deeply soulful middle-aged sad sacks (à la Lost in Translation and The Life Aquatic). Here, he shines again (if that's the right word) as a graying suburban lothario set on a quest by an anonymous letter from a long-ago lover informing him that he has a 19-year-old son. Traveling around the country in nondescript rental cars and dropping in on ex-girlfriends, he tries to divine which woman is the furtive mother, stirring up a whirlpool of uncomfortable old feelings in the process. Murray perfectly embodies backward-looking restlessness, melancholy, and regret, yet also seems imbued with whimsy and fading wounded-puppy magnetism, while the women from his past (Sharon Stone, Frances Conroy, Jessica Lange, and Tilda Swinton) are wonderfully diverse, funny, and emotionally complex. Written and directed by Jim Jarmusch (Stranger Than Paradise, Coffee and Cigarettes) with his distinctive flair for deceptive simplicity, Broken Flowers is anything but a conventional road-trip flick. Recommended. [Note: DVD extras include 'Broken Flowers: Start to Finish' featuring behind-the-scenes footage (8 min.), a 'Farmhouse' segment featuring director Jim Jarmusch (5 min.), 'Girls on the Bus' outtakes (2 min.), and trailers. Bottom line: a small extras package for a small but impressive film.] (R. Blackwelder) [Blu-ray/DVD Review—May 21, 2019—Kino Lorber, 106 min., R, Blu-ray: $29.95—Making its debut on Blu-ray, 2005’s Broken Flowers features a decent transfer and a DTS-HD 5.1 soundtrack. Extras are identical to the previous DVD release, including a 'Broken Flowers: Start to Finish' behind-the-scenes featurette (8 min.), a 'Farmhouse' segment with director Jim Jarmusch (5 min.), and a 'Girls on the Bus' extended scene (2 min.). Bottom line: one of Jarmusch’s better films, this makes a welcome debut on Blu-ray.]