Broken Flowers

Fred and I saw Broken Flowers last night. When he suggested seeing Broken Flowers, I said, "Don't you mean Brokeback Mountain?" He said, "What's that?"

As I am wont to do when communicating about a movie, I grabbed the laptop and pulled up:
1. Ebert and Roeper's review (by googling Ebert and Roeper)
2. The trailer (at Comingsoon.net)

Apparently, he'd never heard of it. At any rate, it's not here yet.

Dutch movies, especially at this movie house we went to, often have intermissions. It sort of sounds quaint, but it's really just a ploy to get you to go buy another snack - and this is a theater without popcorn. I guess they didn't have room for it after they put in the cappacino machine.

At the intermission, Fred turned to me and said, "It's a little slow." It was.

Bill Murray is sort of empty and depressed and is forced by his neighbor to go on a quest to find the woman who sent him a note telling him that he has a son who is now looking for him.

I most enjoyed seeing Frances Conroy from Six Feet Under. She plays a totally different character, but was really flat (like her hair) and didn't have much to work with. I was interested in seeing Jessica Lange. She's got sort of a harsh look. She plays a pet communicator and is just a little too wack. Twila Swinton is the most fabulous as she is complete trailor trash and had I not known it was her going in, I would have missed her. Sharon Stone was the first one and she was sort of typical Sharon Stone.

So it was okay. I wanted more. Fred said it was like the same character in Lost in Translation but with a different setting. It's true. Bill Murray does that sitting and staring thing really well, but, as my colleague Kate used to say, "Learn a new dance!"

After the movie, we had Thai food. We almost had Indonesian, but the tables didn't have chairs. They had little boxes you sit on - with no back! I said, "We can't eat here. I'm not comfortable." I was proud of myself for not enduring it. No one looked comfortable, but the place was pretty full. The only annoying thing with the Thai restaurant was the waitresses banter. Nothing offensive, just a lot of "thank you" after everything.

My suggestion: Wait for video. (Of course it's probably not in the theaters in America any more.)