Monday, March 22, 2010

The Limits of Control


 "He who thinks he is bigger than the rest must go to the cemetery. There he will see what life really is: a handful of dirt." (quote from the movie)

The Limits of Control (2009) - Written and Directed by Jim Jarmusch

The Limits of Control is "the story of a mysterious loner, a stranger, whose activities remain meticulously outside the law. He is in the process of completing a job, yet he trusts no one, and his objectives are not initially divulged."  Actually, they are never divulged, at least not that I could tell.


I have been procrastinating on putting together the review of this movie because it was confusing and I left the movie not quite understanding what happened. This is not altogether unusual for Jim Jarmusch films but this seemed to go a bit farther; it seemed almost like a mix between a Jim Jarmusch film and a David Lynch film (e.g. Blue Velvet). Other Jarmusch-directed films include:

  • Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai (1999) – Fantastic movie and a great introduction to Forest Whitaker
  • Broken Flowers (2005) – slight confusion but easily dismissed by the performances of Tilda Swinton, Bill Murray, Jessica Lange, Jeffery Wright, and others.
  • Stranger than Paradise (1982)
  • Down by Law (1986)

I enjoyed the movie but don’t expect many others will I don’t mean that in a pretentious way but, instead, I simply mean to say that usually people dislike the movies that I enjoy.The film does have a lot of faults and it is slow.

The things I liked about The Limits of Control: 
  • One of the main characters was Spain! Spain performed fabulously and the movie showed the cities and the cafes and the country side and the train stations and let you absorb it.
  • The quiet contemplation gave the viewer time to take in what the main character was taking in even though I was never sure exactly what that was.
  • Entertaining cameos – Tilda Swinton, Bill Murray, Gael Garcia Bernal, and others.
The thing I did not like about The Limits of Control:
  • The filmmaker’s seemingly purposeful lack of story

1 comment:

  1. I have watched this movie numerous times thinking, "there MUST be a hidden message!" But if there is, I haven't found it.

    I can almost say I like it. But I wouldn't recommend it to anyone.

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