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Review:
 Bill
Murray, has in recent years, perfected a certain character. Well
aware, but half asleep, he wanders through the world trying to
make sense of it all. He's gotten an Oscar® nomination for playing
it, and it's always rather fascinating to watch.
Jim Jamrusch is an occasional genius, who's films range from the
useless to the utterly brilliant. This is a match made in heaven
that has born fruit before, in “Coffee and Cigarettes”.
During the opening credits we follow a pink envelope as it travels
from the hand of a mysterious person through the entire US postal
system, until it winds up in the front hall of one Don
Johnston(Murray), whom we meet getting dumped on by his
girlfriend(Julie Delpy), while nosey sitcom neighbor
Winston(Jeffrey Wright) calls to invite him for fine Ethiopian
coffee.
While discussing life, our hero opens the letter at last, which
says that he has a nineteen year old son who's off on a voyage to
find his unknown father. Being a laid-back kind'a guy, he's more
than happy to wait for the fellow to drop by, but Winston is a big
fan of mystery novels and TV shows and thinks himself a bit of a
sleuth himself. This is an old fashioned mystery presenting itself
in real life.
He convinces Don to go on a preemptive quest to find out who the
mysterious mother is. To do this, Don has to visit all the
girlfriends he was going out with in 1986, and ask them point
blank. Winston has made all the arrangements, all he has to do is
foot the bill and go.
So off he goes. These are four very different women. The first,
Laura(Sharon Stone), is a widow with a teenaged daughter(Alexis
Dziena) who likes to go around in the nude. Dora(Frances Conroy)
is a real estate broker who's married to her business
partner(Christopher MacDonald) and is ultra-straight and living in
a house that looks like something out of “House and Garden.”
Carmen(Jessica Lange) is an “animal communicator” who claims to be
to be a latter-day Dr. Doolittle. Then there's Penny(Tilda Swinton),
who lives out in the middle of nowhere and is the only one of the
four who isn't happy to see Don after all these years.
Does Don find his son? That would be telling, and while this isn't
one of the most compelling movies of the year, but it's one chock
full of really winning performances, and is definitely worth a
bargain matinee.
Eric Lurio
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