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I'm just back from this movie, and went to see it rather half-heartedly mainly because I feel Bill Murray is becoming so frigging predictable in his recent movies. I almost feel it's an Emperor's New Clothes scam -- where reviewers praise his lugubrious profundity, I mainly see a guy whose main selling-point is the foldy, jowled, scarred face he's developed with age, and whose main schtick is just sitting behind that face animating it as little as possible. It could be seen as a Kuleshov editing effect: cut to an interesting, lively, vibrant actor as foil, cut back to Murray and by contrast his absence of response seems to be speaking volumes.
I don't entirely feel this cynical, but I could sympathise with someone who advanced that argument. I'm also almost persuaded by those who claim Murray is really doing something subtle and special in these recent performances. Overall I suppose I'm undecided whether he's become a great actor with his own unique tone, or whether he's going along with an enormous lucky streak whereby his face on its own just suddenly fits the indie-cinema mood, without him having to do much about it.
Anyway, I very much enjoyed Sideways, About Schmidt and The Straight Story, which this film most seemed to resemble, and in that respect I liked Broken Flowers. I like films that take us on a road trip round quirky corners of Americana, filled with detailed and telling mise-en-scene and nice little scenes of social edge or embarrassment.
It might sound a strange complaint but I felt disappointed by the lack of geographical sense -- Don mostly travels by airplane, and I got no impression of what area he was in, or what route he was taking. I don't know what state any of his encounters occurred in, or how far he travelled. The transitions between meetings were mainly covered by a shot of a plane, a few behind-the-wheel shots, maybe a shot of Don drowsing in a seat, and a series of fades to black. In a road movie, I like more sense of place and travel. |
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