1. Broken Flowers (2005)
Focus Features
Don: Well, the past is gone, I know that. The future isn't here yet, whatever its going to be. So, all there is, is this. The present. Thats it. One undeniable truth about the Bill Murray of Broken Flowers is that the past is gone. Gone are the days where Peter Venkman kisses Dana at the end of Ghostbusters or Phil Connors wakes up next to Rita in Groundhog Day. No, now Broken Flowers Don Johnston a name that so cruelly places him in him native 1980s as the Miami Vice hero he never was is a "confirmed bachelor" who trawls through a series of failed past relationships in attempt to find out which of them wrote him a letter claiming to be the mother of his child. Early in the film, Johnston's neighbour, Winston (Jeffrey Wright) a happily married man argues that only Johnston can embark on the trip because you understand women. Sure, Johnston might get the women, but never has the Murray persona been able to understand women. Was the charm of Peter Venkman not how badly he misread situations? His half-jesting comments of I'm going to go for broke, I'm madly in love with you and teasing comments of Look at all the junk food! are here replaced with a truly broken man lost in the world. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c_TB7MkrGyc Its an acting tour de force that brilliantly deconstructs everything that we admired and despised in equal parts of Murrays roles; the charm that made us want to talk about him and sliminess that made us actually believe hed steal fries from strangers on the streets. Murray reportedly considered quitting acting after Broken Flowers as he thought it was the best acting he could ever do and while none of us can ever imagine a time when Murray isnt making films the final moments of Broken Flowers would hardly have been a bad way to bow out.