Broken Flowers 2005

Critics score:
88 / 100

Reviews provided by RottenTomatoes

Moira MacDonald, Seattle Times: Jarmusch shows us, as he has in the past, that the journey, not the arrival, matters. Read more

David Gilmour, Globe and Mail: It's many things: a terrific performance piece for a handful of good actors, an engaging metaphor and a so-so piece of storytelling. Read more

Michael Wilmington, Chicago Tribune: Jarmusch is a brilliant critic of the dead-ends of American culture and society and a first-rate painter of the absurdities of the Now and the traps of the Then. Read more

Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle: The movie doesn't come to a definitive point or make an explicit, but the movie does illustrate, in a penetrating way, the sadness of going through life emotionally disconnected. Read more

Richard Roeper, Ebert & Roeper: One of the smartest, funniest and most touching movies of the summer. Read more

Eleanor Ringel Gillespie, Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Ultimately, the Jarmusch-Murray matchup, for all its flaws, offers a uniquely bittersweet experience, a movie with some broken funny bones and a questioning heart. Read more

Nathan Rabin, AV Club: There's a real poignancy in watching Murray's emotional chill thaw from the heat generated by even the idea of romance, or at least its more libidinous evil twin, lust. Read more

Bill Muller, Arizona Republic: An elegant, evocative film. Read more

Ty Burr, Boston Globe: A minimalist miracle that transcends comedy and drama to wind up in a bigger and wiser place. Read more

Carina Chocano, Los Angeles Times: It's too cold and too uninterested in talk in general and the stories people tell themselves about their romantic lives in particular to do its premise justice. Read more

Jonathan Rosenbaum, Chicago Reader: Jarmusch's narrative setups are often artificial and implausible, but his stories are usually charming anyway because the sense of character runs deeper than plot. Read more

Lisa Kennedy, Denver Post: Don's is a journey more bittersweet than riotously funny. But then, Murray is becoming a relentless minimalist. Read more

Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly: A movie of uncommon sweetness and delight. Read more

Chris Vognar, Dallas Morning News: Mr. Jarmusch has always worked in the rhythms of the great European directors. With Broken Flowers, he has found a story, and a star, to gracefully match his style. Read more

Scott Foundas, L.A. Weekly: Bill Murray delivers another master class in movie-acting minimalism. Read more

Gene Seymour, Newsday: As with previous Jarmusch rambles, Broken Flowers risks getting overpowered by aridity and drift. That it barely avoids such a fate can be credited entirely to Murray's graceful empathy with loss and regret. Read more

Ken Tucker, New York Magazine/Vulture: Murray manages, almost impossibly, to come up with still another rich variation on his Depleted Man persona, and his performance is at once enormously generous and fiercely, concisely witty. Read more

Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger: Broken Flowers is a road movie, and like the best road movies, it doesn't take a straight path. Read more

Bob Mondello, NPR.org: Read more

Jack Mathews, New York Daily News: A Jarmusch film through and through, with the stars shining against the same minimalist backdrop. Read more

A.O. Scott, New York Times: With Broken Flowers, Jim Jarmusch's sly, touching new film, Bill Murray reaffirms his status as the quietest comic actor in movies today. Read more

Andrew Sarris, New York Observer: It kept me absorbed all the way through, especially the collaboration between acting auteur Bill Murray and Mr. Jarmusch in virtually every frame of the film. Read more

Roger Moore, Orlando Sentinel: A very gentle and wry outing for Jarmusch and his star. Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: In the wasteland of August releases, this entry shines like a beacon lighting the way to a theater. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: No actor is better than Bill Murray as doing nothing at all, and being fascinating while not doing it. Read more

Stephanie Zacharek, Salon.com: [A] well-meaning but remote picture. Read more

David Edelstein, Slate: Broken Flowers is Jarmusch's most conventionally entertaining film, but it's still visually rigorous, swimming in pregnant silences, and un-filled-in in a way that's tantalizing. Read more

Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune: Long on atmosphere, light on dialogue and courageously willing to leave its puzzles unresolved. Read more

St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Read more

Peter Howell, Toronto Star: Those hound-dog eyes, and that weary sneer, reveal a man who understands the value of understatement. Read more

Geoff Andrew, Time Out: The ending is sublime, a set piece that almost makes up for the overwhelming slightness of it all. Read more

Mike Clark, USA Today: Flowers is smartly observational -- but a little screen heat would be worth a bouquet. Read more

Todd McCarthy, Variety: Working in his typically idiosyncratic and episodic vein, Jim Jarmusch has nonetheless pitched the film slightly more toward mainstream tastes than usual for him, using excellent thesps in the service of accessible material. Read more

J. Hoberman, Village Voice: The master of the un-reaction shot and the non-double take carries an entire movie. Read more

Jessica Winter, Village Voice: A Jarmuschian bouquet of episodic structure, desultory road-tripping, and droll dislocation, each comic setup as simple and plywood-dry a contraption as ever. Read more

Desson Thomson, Washington Post: Take this trip with him and chances are, you'll find the journey increasingly funny and touching. Read more

Ann Hornaday, Washington Post: It takes someone with Murray's reservoir of audience goodwill to make such a maddeningly passive character even worth watching. Read more