Review of Down by Law (1986) by Todd J — 02 Jun 2008

Jim Jarmusch's follow-up to Stranger than Paradise takes a lot of the same ideas that film had regarding cultural differenece and manages to pull off the same genre/non-genre riffing that made the former so captivating.

When I saw Tom Waits on the cast, I was a bit afraid that this could turn into a hipster rampage, the likes of which would likely make me sick. Luckily, Waits' character is rather reserved and serves an effective counterpoint to John Lurie who mostly reprises his role from Stranger through the eye of a small-town pimp and eventual prison inmate.

Lurie's a little edgier here at the beginning, and I was disappointed that the film never really went anywhere with this. Roberto Benigni comes into the fold as a silly yet crowd-pleasing Italian tourist.

I like Benigni enough in some of his Italian comedies like Johnny Stecchino, but his charm never quite got over on me here, wearing thin only to be saved at the end by how his character is handled by Jarmusch.

I guess his overacting works to an extent hear and serves as a balance between Waits' stoic constant hangover and Lurie's hipster schtick. Cinematically, I'm not sure that the film is as interesting as Jarmusch's work on Stranger, but the cinematography from longtime Wenders collaborater, Robby Müller provides some gorgeous black and white shots of Louisiana.

The script never quite decides how far it wants to go with the genre stuff, having Lurie alternatively go into his ironic yet realist performances or into noir territory. However, the whole idea of prisons in the film and the inevitability of being stuck in one of them strikes home in a lot of ways for me and serves to make the ending a bit more legit than one might think.

All in all, I feel like the film doesn't quite get at what it's trying to as cinematically as Stranger than Paradise did, but it's still a very different, very independent picture that separates itself from nearly every trend in 80's cinema.

**** out've *****.