This was preceded for me by a couple of pretty formulaic efforts, so it was nice to see something in which the people making the film made an effort to do something different and interesting. Its not a big, ambitious film, but its good at what it does, and funny and enjoyable as a result.

Rubbish. But for the presence of Harrison Ford, this would never have made the cinemas. For a guy who made some pretty reasonable films up until the early 90s, Ford is in a really dry run right now. This film, like others he’s made recently, is a pretty tepid and formulaic thriller, and will be a midday movie in a few years’ time.

The only thing separating this from any number of cookie-cutter teen coming-of-age films is that it revolves around poor black kids in urban Atlanta, not rich white kids in California. The setting is thus more interesting by virtue of its relative novelty, but the story is still run-of-the-mill, so at the end of the day its not going to change anyone’s life.

This isn’t a narrative, piece. It’s not even really a character study, but I still liked it. It just has a good vibe. Bill Murray, playing a character without any particularly strongly discerning characteristics, is just one of those guys that’s easy to watch, and the little vignettes on each of his “broken flowers” were each, for me, interesting little paintings of what can go wrong with people’s lives. It’s also very much a european style film, with little external dilemma, and with an ending that could generously be called inconclusive.