Change Your Image
man-with-many-doubts
Reviews
Broken Flowers (2005)
Not a good movie, redeemed somewhat by the climax
I am unaware of Jarmusch's other creations, however I did see "Lost in Translation (LIT)" The pace of the two movies is comparable, only "Broken Flowers" is a lot slower. That was probably the intention but I think that is being kind to the director. The scenery, the shots are worth sitting through but I had less than the requisite amount of patience. Also it is a lot less funny compared to LIT.
I also did not think Bill Murray put in a good performance this time. His character's pretentiousness was off putting. I think the character would've had more life if he occasionally feigned mock interest in trivial things and later rolled his eyes. Bill Murray seemed disinterested.
The best part of the movie is the climax and it is the contrast between the climax and what went on till the climax that heightens our appreciation (Maybe the director intended it to be that way, but I think even listlessness has to be directed/acted better, listlessness of the character cannot be an excuse for a lackluster performance).
Even in the climax I felt let down by Murray's performance in that he still seemed plastic and artificial. Murray's girlfriends also put in a lackluster performance (with the exception of Julie Delpy and Sharon Stone). The dialogs with his neighbor came across as formulaic.
Bottomline: You might enjoy the climax, if you can wait (or FastForward your way) to get there.
Breaking the Waves (1996)
A movie definitely worthy of your time
"Breaking the Waves" by Lars Von Trier, is a movie about a young woman, Bess, who marries her lover, an oil rig worker, who meets with an accident soon after the marriage and becomes paralyzed. Bess, a psychotic woman, is forced to deal with this tragedy in a rather bizarre way.
I think of the movie this way: each of us lead very different lives and we all react to tragedy in very different ways, but we don't do that alone. We have this constant interaction with different people and we influence each others' decisions, sometimes forcefully, sometimes subtly. But we cannot possibly know what form our influence takes or how powerful it will be. This - the interactions, and ultimately the influences that we have on others both intentionally and unwittingly - , IMHO, is what this movie is about. And it is told much more elegantly and convincingly that I ever can.
Great acting, and a good story, although one could argue that it is quite unrealistic but all the same very compelling. You will most likely come out with a heavy heart because it is a difficult not to get involved with the story and the characters. If you are interested in engaging stories then this movie will not disappoint you.
Heaven's Prisoners (1996)
Not good at all
The characters are not believable. The story itself is not good enough in my opinion. There is no tension in the story to speak of. The direction is unimaginative. There is stuff in this movie that is totally irrelevant to the plot. I guess all of it was introduced in the name of character development. I would have preferred if some 30 irrelevant minutes were cut out. Acting is ordinary if not terrible. Baldwin is OK but the rest of the cast is very hard to watch. All in all a waste of time. The one, perhaps the only redeeming feature, is the location at which this film was shot. It is gorgeous. I think I'm being generous in giving it a 4 out of 10.
We may not know what makes a movie good . It does help however, to see movies like these once in a while, so at least we'll know what makes it bad :)(It helps to be sure of something).