Review of The Limits of Control (2009) by Peter D — 02 Dec 2009

This will test the limits of your patience. It's Jim Jarmusch's most experimental film to date. There's virtually no plot of any kind, and very little happens. But it all about the mood and the atmosphere, its completely visual. And it either takes you in, or bores you to death.

The lead character does and says almost nothing. He travels around a lot, meeting various people, exchanging match boxes. Yet the film is mostly strangely hypnotic. There were points where I began to lose patience, because literally nothing was happening at all. Some of the dialogue is nonsensical, pretentious twaddle, "there are those among us who are not among us..." riiiiiight, you've lost me Jim.

Bill Murray appears near the end and his scene is fairly ridiculous, and isn't really very satisfying way to end the film. Yet its still enjoyable, and beautifully shot by Christopher Doyle. The visual style is more dynamic and energetic than Jarmusch's previous films. It seemed like an attempt to break out of the limits of his own style that he's accumulated over the years. Yet like GhostDog, it felt like style over substance.