There may have been a time when watching a man stare at a wall or a television was considered entertainment. Although it may be preferable to the crashes and carnage so predominant in too many Hollywood productions these days, it cannot carry a motion picture. I understand that Jarmusch wanted to convey to his audience a sense of the numbness that had become the life of the lead character, but in my opinion he went overboard by what seemed an insufferably long time. It was the wrong prelude to Murray's famous deadpans, which tended to look more like discarded outtakes from TRANSLATION as the film progressed. Despite the sporadically molasses pace, the plot was intriguing, the cast excellent and Murray was, notwithstanding the aforementioned problems, as watchable as ever. The production had considerable potential to which, in my opinion, it failed to fully rise. Still, if one were to give it a second try on some rainy afternoon with nothing else to do, it might do better than the six I gave it.
Review of Broken Flowers
