Broken Flowers
Focus Features | Release Date: August 5, 2005 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
79
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 39 Critic Reviews
Positive:
34
Mixed:
5
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
Entertainment WeeklyLisa Schwarzbaum
A movie of uncommon sweetness and delight. Read full review
100
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
No actor is better than Bill Murray at doing nothing at all, and being fascinating while not doing it. Buster Keaton had the same gift for contemplating astonishing developments with absolute calm. Buster surrounded himself with slapstick, and in Broken Flowers Jim Jarmusch surrounds Murray with a parade of formidable women. Read full review
100
Boston GlobeTy Burr
Exhilaratingly slow, which for many will simply mean SLOW... Those who can downshift appropriately, however, stand to be enraptured. Read full review
91
Portland OregonianShawn Levy
An engaging exercise in mature poignancy, existential consciousness and deadpan drollery, Broken Flowers is a return by Jarmusch to the road movie structure of such films as "Stranger Than Paradise," "Night on Earth" and "Dead Man." Read full review
90
NewsweekDavid Ansen
Funny, bittersweet, its understatement yielding surprising depth charges, Broken Flowers is a triumph of close observation and telling details. Read full review
90
The A.V. ClubNathan Rabin
Murray and Jarmusch, two modern masters of minimalism, triumphantly join forces in Broken Flowers, a bittersweet tour de force about a wealthy, deeply depressed lothario. Read full review
90
Village VoiceJessica Winter
With elegant restraint the film subtly intimates the wintry dead end-twilight years bereft of love, partner, or vocation-that may be in store for its aged lover man. (Payne's "About Schmidt" did too, when not gorging snidely on idiot Americana.) Read full review
90
L.A. WeeklyScott Foundas
It's a romantic comedy in which both the romance and the comedy are turned to such muted levels that any lower would require closed captioning. Read full review
90
The New York TimesDana Stevens
Like a perfect, short-lived love affair, its pleasure is accompanied by a palpable sting of sorrow. It leaves you wanting more, which I mean entirely as a compliment. Read full review
90
SlateDavid Edelstein
The ending is madly unsatisfying--yet dead perfect. This is a remarkable film. Read full review
90
New York Magazine (Vulture)Ken Tucker
Murray's performance is at once enormously generous and fiercely, concisely witty. Read full review
88
Rolling StonePeter Travers
Broken Flowers may be too low-key for laugh junkies, but Jarmusch fills his sharply observed comedy with wonderful mischief. The mix of humor and heartbreak brings out the best in Murray. Read full review
88
Chicago TribuneMichael Wilmington
A dark subject certainly, but in Murray's bouquet-bearing hands, it can still hand us a laugh. Read full review
88
PremiereGlenn Kenny
This is not a perfect picture, but it’s a soulful one that offers a lot of pleasure and even a kind of wisdom. Read full review
83
Seattle Post-IntelligencerWilliam Arnold
It's a consciousness-raising personal odyssey in the tradition of such recent indie hits as "Sideways" and "About Schmidt" -- only less obviously comedic and, as always with Jarmusch, blissfully unresolved. Read full review
80
VarietyTodd McCarthy
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 full review
80
Dallas ObserverBill Gallo
If you're shopping for neatly tied bundles of plot and the rigid arcs of "character development" common to mainstream movies, look elsewhere. Whether he's playing on the road or at home, Jarmusch always throws a lot of off-speed stuff, and that's his glory. Read full review
80
Washington PostDesson Thomson
Take this trip with him and chances are, you'll find the journey increasingly funny and touching. Read full review
80
Washington PostAnn Hornaday
Jarmusch manages to imbue banality with surprising beauty and humor. Read full review
80
Wall Street JournalJoanne Kaufman
Jarmusch's uncharacteristically mainstream -- wonderful -- road trip movie.
80
EmpireJo Berry
All the actresses (including Tilda Swinton as ex number four) give wonderful performances in the short screen time each of them is allowed. Read full review
78
Austin ChronicleMarjorie Baumgarten
Broken Flowers is as elliptical as the haunting jazz music by Mulatu Astatke that permeates the soundtrack. Read full review
75
ReelViewsJames Berardinelli
In the wasteland of August releases, this entry shines like a beacon lighting the way to a theater. Read full review
75
Philadelphia InquirerCarrie Rickey
For actresses of a certain age, Jarmusch's film amounts to a full-employment act...Best are Stone, transparent in her desire, and Conroy, completely opaque. Read full review
75
USA TodayMike Clark
Flowers is smartly observational -- but a little screen heat would be worth a bouquet. Read full review
75
New York Daily NewsJack Mathews
This is Murray's subtlest performance, and one of his best. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalle
A study of middle-class, middle-aged disappointment in its varying forms, a sober look at different life choices. Read full review
75
Baltimore SunChris Kaltenbach
It forces you to fill in the blanks, then refuses to judge whether you're right or wrong. It's almost like the audience writes its own script, and everybody appreciates his or her own work. Read full review
75
Miami HeraldPeter Debruge
A haunting, poetic film, and yet it suffers two major failings. First, Murray provides too blank a slate for the audience to appreciate whatever insights a more expressive performance might have offered. Second, and far more troubling, is the way Jarmusch refuses to take his female characters seriously. Read full review
70
The Hollywood ReporterKirk Honeycutt
It skips merrily along the surface with its over-the-top vignettes but never seems to arrive at a destination. Nevertheless, the journey is more than half the fun as every actor attacks his role with relish. Read full review
70
The New YorkerDavid Denby
Murray’s linking up with Jim Jarmusch is a case of Mr. Cool meeting Mr. Cool, and the result is intriguing and elegant, but not quite satisfying. Read full review
70
Los Angeles TimesCarina Chocano
It's hard to fully empathize with Don's season of remorse. It's the big problem with Broken Flowers, and one I don't think the movie -- for all of its funny and occasionally poignant touches -- ever really transcends. Read full review
70
Chicago ReaderJonathan Rosenbaum
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 full review
63
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)David Gilmour
It's like watching a man trying to scratch an itch by eating an egg. It doesn't address the problem. It's also the sort of thing that Europeans love to think about America -- everybody looking, nobody finding -- and it might explain why this decent, but by no means great, film won the Grand Prix at the 2005 Cannes Film Festival. Read full review
60
Film ThreatChris Barsanti
Possibly the most European of major American directors, Jim Jarmusch wears his influences on his sleeve and makes no bones about it. Read full review
60
TV Guide MagazineMaitland McDonagh
The film ends on an ambiguous note that will infuriate some viewers and strike others as the only possible finale to Don's sad absurdist journey. Read full review
60
SalonStephanie Zacharek
Well-meaning but remote picture. Read full review
60
The New RepublicStanley Kauffmann
The five episodes in Broken Flowers are good enough to make us expect that the picture has a theme, but it hasn't. Read full review
50
New York PostKyle Smith
Audiences will laugh, mainly to prove they're awake, but the humor is pretty thin. Read full review
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