Jim Jarmusch's latest film is either going to strike you as brilliant or mind-numbing and tedious. In a weird way it's a return to the art house films from Europe in the 1960's and 1970's.
The film begins with a man meeting two others who send him off on a mission of some sort. Along the way he sits, drinks two espressos in cafés, and meets people who send him on to the next part of his trip. It's hypnotic and philosophical and more often then not, nothing happens.
If it doesn't click with you, you will want to turn it off or walk out of the theater or something, depending upon how you're viewing it. If it does click with you it will be a great zen mediation on life, dreams, perception, and finding patterns. I liked the film. I completely understand why the reviewers I read were split. This doesn't behave like most films do now, and it messed with some of their heads. I understand why the studio didn't give this as big a run as other of Jim Jarmusch's films, because even by his standards it's a bit atypical. For me it's a weird hybrid of Dead Man, Waking Life, and some of Werner Herzog's films, or at least some sequences where he marries incredible music and image. What does the film mean? I don't have a clue. It's a strange film with an odd comic sense (everyone is always asking our hero "you don't speak Spanish, right?" in Spanish, and then proceeding to talk to him at length. It's a beautiful film that really belongs in a picture frame.
I'm at a loss as to explain it or my feelings towards it.
If you're willing to go with the silence and the lack of explanation I recommend it at least as a rental.
It's a trip.
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