Few actors can make hitting rock bottom look so damn appealing as Bill Murray. His steel industrialist Herman Blume is a pathetic washout, wealthy but desperate; having to compete with fifteen-year-old student Max Fischer (Jason Schwartzman) for the heart of teacher Rosemary Cross (Olivia Williams). At a birthday party for his twin sons (whom he hates), he sits bored at the opposite end of the pool, absent-mindedly throwing golf balls at anyone in reach. After catching his wife flirting with another man, he rises from his chair, walks towards the diving board, climbs the ladder, takes a swig of whiskey from his glass and cannonballs into the pool. It doesn't sound particularly effective but it's the little touches - the Budweiser shorts, the cigarette in his mouth, the glass in his hand - along with his complete lack of expression that makes this scene say so much in such a short space of time. There's no dialogue, instead Herman lets the soundtrack (The Kinks' "Nothin' In This World Can Stop Me Worryin' 'Bout That Girl") speak for him. Sitting there on the pool floor, he finds a rare moment of peace - only for a kid swimming by to disrupt his daydream and bring him back into the real world. When he eventually resurfaces, things are disappointingly, predictably, exactly how he left them.
Yorkshireman (hence the surname). Often spotted sacrificing sleep and sanity for the annual Leeds International Film Festival. For a sample of (fairly) recent film reviews, please visit whatsnottoblog.wordpress.com.
