2005, USA/France
Comedy, Drama
Follow the yellow brick road, the orange soda or the pink flowers -- they all lead to similar destinations. An unforeseen turn of events can send even the most sane person on a journey with unexpected results. Director Jim Jarmusch (Coffee and Cigarettes, Dead Man) lights the way for Don Johnston (a subtle but lovely Bill Murray) after he receives a letter stating that he fathered a son 20 years ago. A letter with no signature and no address.
It becomes apparent that Don was quite the playboy when the seed was sown and as a middle-aged bachelor he still has woman troubles. His meddling but well-intentioned neighbor Winston (the brilliant Jeffrey Wright of "Angels in America") becomes his guide in a quest Don is quite hesitant to pursue. Winston maps the journey, advises the hero on a weapon (the flora of the film's title), and provides constant encouragement when the road becomes too rough to travel.
As Don visits each of his old flames in order to discover the truth, Jarmusch reveals his talent for displaying both the physical and emotional connections between each ex-girlfriend. The material clues are not hard to identify; Winston even advises Don to look for pink objects, as a tie to the instigating letter's stationary. These obvious hints are not insulting to the audience, though they may be red herrings to the bigger picture. However, don't dismiss Don's own touch of pink.
Jarmusch creates a beautiful emotional arc between the women based on their reactions to reuniting with Don after two silent decades, ranging from open and welcoming to guarded and sullen to aggressive and angry. Their lives, careers and families also run parallel with this arc. One has a child that seems a reflection of her younger self and another only has a picture of her younger self with no plans for facsimile. Their families feel protective of their significant others, though with some it materializes as passive aggressive jealousy and in others through physical violence.
The women in Don's life are all portrayed by skilled actresses. Sharon Stone fits well in the skin of a free spirit who has had some tough breaks but continues ahead with a smile. Frances Conroy plays a character similar to her "Six Feet Under" trod-upon heroine, but provides lovely glints of a past not completely forgotten. Jessica Lange's Carmen provides more questions than answers, but does so in such a shrewd way that it seems that to pursue her would be allowing curiosity to kill the cat. Tilda Swinton contains a powerhouse performance in a brief scene, pulling strength from her character's years of pain. Each actress holds her own, but it is not jolting to flow from one retired relationship to the next.
This is a film ripe for discussion. Each introduction to a lost love invites curiosity into the story of a previous life, not only by the woman's reaction, but also by the flowers Don chooses to give, to the dinner that may or may not result, to the families that each woman has chosen, to the career paths they have pursued. The wonderful thing is that though each woman has an entry in each of those categories, there is still no absolute reasoning or explanation of what led to those decisions. Jarmusch does not tell his audience what to think, but rather creates fertile ground upon which to ponder.
Fun extras on this disc include the random babblings of the young bus girls, a speed round of all the film's slates with intermittent Murray-isms, a featurette of the film's images with interesting interview responses from Jarmusch playing over them, and the film's trailer and soundtrack info (which is interesting considering that all the music heard in the film is being played by the characters of the scene, often in the form of Winston's mix CD for Don).