Broken Flowers

With his latest film, Jim Jarmusch produces his most thought provoking and mature film to date. Bill Murray plays an aging Don Juan named Don Johnston who one day receives an anonymous letter informing him that he has a nineteen year old son. His lack of reaction to the letter is compensated for by his friend and neighbor, Winston (who fancies himself an amateur detective), who immediately has Don form of list of possibly mothers for the child and then sets him out on a trip to discover the truth. Of course it's a film about the journey and not the destination in which he encounters his former lovers each in their own stage of life. The normally talkative Jarmusch quiets down with this film, to great effect, and he finds the perfect actor for the role in Murray who has recently become known for his own brand of "non-acting" which has an uncanny way of speaking volumes without doing anything. The poignancy, humor, and sadness of the film are never very far from each other as Johnston learns about himself and maybe even a little bit about humanity. This is easily one of the best films of the year so far.