"Broken Flowers"

It's the new Jim Jarmusch-Bill Murray movie you may have seen or read about. Gven and I had been meaning to go for a couple of weeks, but for one reason or another, even with Drexel Dollars in my wallet, we hadn't gotten it together to drive across town to the historic Grandview Theater. By some miracle it was still there Labor Day weekend, so Friday night we tore ourselves away from our respective projects - building a new compost heap, painting the kitchen green - to tear across town in Gven's car Olive and by some miracle found a parking place just steps from the theater.

What can I say? It's a funny, thoughtful movie with a fine cast; it held my interest for two hours. It plays teasingly with images of houses, neighborhoods, and countryside while scrupulously avoiding any references to specific places. It unfolds a few characters' past and present relationships in little cat-and-mouse games that bounce all kinds of crazy emotional debris off the deadpan countenance of Bill Murray, whose character, Don (as in Quixote) remains as evenly neutral as some enlightened but inactive yogi or monk through it all.

Besides all that, it gave Gven and me plenty to talk about while we walked up and down Grandview Ave. while I worked out the kinks in my legs. I even spotted a cool, cheap Indonesian drum in Wild Birds Unlimited, across from the post office. We ended up at the sheeshee wine shop next door to Spagio, where we found a table next to a smiling, posturing state auditor and smart-money favorite in the next race for governor. While a fresh-faced young woman and her increasingly drunk friends noisily descended through the last hour of a bachelorette party, we drank Czech lager and picked at the disappointing cheese plate. (Note to self: Don't order the $11.00 cheese plate at Spagio's wine shop.)

It wasn't until Monday night, over a candlelight supper of brots and pasta on the patio, that I cast all caution and good sense to the wind and brought up my self-referential response to the movie, which I'm guessing is shared by at least half of the male audience of this film (the half that's over 40): What names would be on your short list in a "Broken Flowers" scenario?

If you've seen it, you know the premise. Don receives a pink note from an anonymous ex-girlfriend claiming that her 19-year-old son (by Don) has left home in search of his never-seen biological father. Don is mystified, not knowing who sent it or even that he had a son. His Sancho Panza-like friend is as animated by the potential adventure as Don is woeful, and the next day he hands Don a stack of airplane tickets, rental car reservations, and MapQuest itineraries to help him find the mystery mom with the pink stationery.

The four Dulcineas he reluctantly tracks down form the middle third of the movie, and it would be fun to deconstruct that series of trips, but not here. For some perverse reason, I was intrigued by the what-if possibilities, and my dear wife was a good sport and played along, even though it's really a guy thing, the whole "no kids that I know about" schtick. I now invite my readers to join the fun and choose a short list of your own exes for a hypothetical Broken Flowers investigation.

For the record, Gven named Kenny the musician, whom she knew in Atlanta just before she met me; John from high school, whose girlfriend was really hostile toward Gven, apparently for a good reason; and James from Georgia Tech, a friend of a friend's brother and first serious love. Fair enough, how about me? I would want to look up Sue from the U.P., whom I awkwardly left to move to Georgia and (though it didn't know it at the time) meet Gven; Margi from Purdue, a sweet, wild, fun-loving elementary teacher who, to my chagrin at the time, married someone else; and Nancy from Ann Arbor, whose arty sophistication and left-wing politics both infatuated and intimidated my young self.

Not that I'll ever undertake a Don-like journey to investigate the present state of past loves. It would likely be as disastrous as Don's unbidden quest, but who knows? Meanwhile, I'm interested in other people's reactions to the movie, as well as their lists of suspects for investigation, at any stage of your own journey.