Broken Flowers (2005)

Bill Murray is a ladies' man who has left so many women in his wake that, when he receives an anonymous letter telling him that his 19-year-old son might be looking for him, he can't narrow down the possible mothers to less than four. The thing is, I don't see Murray as being a ladies' man (whose streak is portrayed as, improbably, continuing with Julie Delpy as his current lover). He's downright bored with life and seems to be bored with other people as well.

Jeffrey Wright is a lot of fun as Murray's next-door-neighbor who's a frazzled father of five holding down three jobs. He fancies himself an amateur PI and seizes on the opportunity to solve the mystery of Murray's letter-writer. That bit of brightness in this deliberately low-volume odyssey is not enough. Just winds up feeling monotonous as Murray -- the one person to whom the mystery should matter seems completely uninterested in solving it.

I did like the "just a guy buying a guy a sandwich" scene, but it seemed almost mean-spirited to withhold the pay-off.

C+