Director: Jim Jarmusch
Starring: Isaach De Bankole, Paz de la Huerta & John Hurt
Another meditative drama from Jarmusch that will please most fans but frustrate audiences not already familiar with the director’s style.
As several other, independent, directors have done recently (Woody Allen with Vicky Cristina Barcelona, Wes Anderson with The Darjeeling Limited), Jim Jarmusch has followed suit in relocating the action of his latest film to foreign climes. The Limits of Control is similar in theme and approach as many of Jarmusch’s other films but in moving the location from America to Spain allows Jarmusch to allow his camera to linger on the beautiful locations and vistas that Spain has to offer. European in his approach to storytelling already, Jarmusch’s latest film will please his fans and the use of locations may please some other film goers.
The Lone Man (De Bankole) is an agent, a supposed assassin, hired to fulfil a job in Spain. Given directions to wait at cafés, enjoy local sights and await further instructions as to his target and their location, the Lone Man meets a variety of colourful agents at various Spanish locations, each with their own philosophies on life and art and imagination that may, or may not, aid him in the completion of his assignment.
While The Limits of Control holds plenty that will satisfy fans of Jim Jarmusch, the film itself, while entertaining, occasionally feels lacking through its assemblage of various familiar traits and themes from Jarmusch’s previous films. With the lone assassin recalling Ghost Dog: Way of the Samurai and the frequent conversations over coffee recalling Coffee & Cigarettes, even Broken Flowers in it’s episodic approach to the Lone Man’s encounters and the frequent familiar faces from Jarmusch’s past films, The Limits of Control sometimes feels as though Jarmusch is drawing too much on past works than developing anything new, much like Almodovar in his recent effort Broken Embraces. However, the pieces do work together fairly well and still satisfy and where The Limits of Control does impress is in its use of Spain as a location. Using Christopher Doyle, known from the works of Wong Kar Wai, as cinematographer means Jarmusch has a film that looks beautiful and when the camera lingers on one of Jarmusch’s many scenes of meditation and contemplation, the scenery enriches the scenes and the film. The lack of a plot will no doubt frustrate audiences unfamiliar with Jarmusch’s work, but there are hints of a political sub-text below the surface with the Lone Man’s contacts representing various nations opposed to US actions and the Lone Man’s target referred later as just the American.
Featuring an impressive cast of talented actors, many having worked with Jarmusch before, The Limits of Control features many likeable, if brief, performances. Tilda Swinton, John Hurt and Gael Garcia Bernal all appear as various contacts of the Lone Man’s, each reciting their musings on art, film, music and life in engaging style and each represented as more casual looking and dishevelled than the last (perhaps representing the Lone Man’s need to let go of control and embrace his imagination if he is to complete his assignment). Paz de la Huerta is engaging as the film’s equivalent to a femme fatale but it is Isaach De Bankole who truly engages throughout as the Lone Man. De Bankole, a frequent collaborator with Jarmusch, is an actor who embodies quiet cool. His character, the Lone Man, rarely speaks in the film so it is good that De Bankole, with a face and a demeanour that draws attention and impresses silently, is cast in the film’s leading role.
Overall, while drawing a little too much on the director’s past films to stand up as one of his best, The Limits of Control will still satisfy fans of Jarmusch and many will certainly be impressed by the lush cinematography and the Spanish locations. Newcomers though may be frustrated by the film’s slow pace and meditative tone. A film mainly for independent film and Jarmusch fans.
Rating: 3/5
