Letters have served as wonderful catalysts for movie wreckage and movie joy. The one in “Broken Flowers,” writer-director Jim Jarmusch’s indigo mood of a comedy, arrives in a pink envelope.
What it induces – ruin, ecstasy or something in between – we’ll leave a mystery. But dropped in a post office box (by whom, we don’t know), the missive winds its way through the machinery of the U.S. Postal Service while the hipster music Jarmusch always has had such a gift for sets the tone.
In a tree-lined suburban neighborhood, a postal worker slides the letter into slot at Don Johnston’s home. It may be Johnston’s home and his story, but actor Bill Murray owns it.
The letter rests amid other mail as Don and his about-to-be ex, Sherry (Julie Delpy), say their goodbyes. She tells him, “I don’t want to be with an over-the-hill Don Juan.” (You might find yourself wondering, “Since when does Don Juan wear a succession of sweat suits?”)
Moments before Sherry’s departure, Don had been sitting on his couch watching “The Private Life of Don Juan.” The 1934 comedy starred Douglas Fairbanks as the retired lover, now middle-aged.
When Sherry leaves, Don picks up the letter and heads over to the house of Winston, his Ethiopian neighbor and closest friend. From the letter, Don learns he has a 19-year-old child. This son, the anonymous writer states, may be on a journey to locate his dad.
“Congratulations!” says Winston, played with endearing clarity by Jeffrey Wright. Hardly the right response, or is it? Winston’s colorful, kid-filled home is as vivid a counterpoint to Don’s somber abode as Winston is a sweet counterweight to his friend.
Winston pushes Don to resolve the mystery of who sent the letter. An amateur sleuth, he tracks down the five lovers who could have written the note, organizes Don’s itinerary, even burns him a CD with music by Ethiopian composer Mulatu Astatke.
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Don’s journey reunites him with four very different women. It also takes him to one grave site.
As Laura, the mother of a teenager she has named Lolita, Sharon Stone restores some cheeky dignity to Shelly Winter’s role by being aware and sexy. (And Don’s no Humbert Humbert.)
“Six Feet Under” mom Frances Conroy gives her married real estate agent a skittish vibe that makes her a fine candidate for the letter-sender.
Jessica Lange’s Carmen has become a very successful “animal communicator,” with upscale clients and an overprotective assistant (or is that possessive?), played by Chloë Sevigny.
What Tilda Swinton as a biker chick living at the end of a rough, rural road injects into less than four minutes of screen time is a scary wonder.
Not one of these women immediately recognizes Don, which is just one of many fine comments Jarmusch makes about men aging.
Don’s is a journey more bittersweet than riotously funny. But then, Murray is becoming a relentless minimalist. All the knowingness, carried on his smirk or in his crooner line delivery, is gone. After all, everything Don Johnston knows (at least about women) seems up for grabs.
In “Lost in Translation” and “The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou,” Murray gives us portraits of men reckoning with – and sometimes dodging – the meaning of getting older.
Let “Wedding Crashers” deal its faux epiphanies about cads and love. For the grown-ups, there’s this glimpse into the private life of Don Johnston.
Film critic Lisa Kennedy can be reached at 303-820-1567 or lkennedy@denverpost.com.
“Broken Flowers”
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R for language, some graphic nudity and brief drug use|1 hour, 46 minutes|DRAMA|Written and directed by Jim Jarmusch; photography by Frederick Elmes; starring Bill Murray, Jeffrey Wright, Sharon Stone, Frances Conroy, Jessica Lange, Tilda Swinton and Julie Delpy|Opens today at the Esquire.
