The Limits of Control

The "storyline": Nothing much happens at all. A man in Madrid orders an espresso, takes a train, walks in and out of a spanish museum in madrid, walks around town in madrid. No drama, no humor, just a man wandering about in Madrid getting secretive messages from strange secretive people

Despite the failure to create drama, humor or suspense this movie still kept me curious about it's ending. I did enjoy it, but in the same way as I would enjoy watching landscapes pass by in the train. Soothing, mellow, calm. But for those who expect a story with some drama, my advice is to walk away. Only suited for die hard Jim Jarmusch fans. This is definitely NOT a typical gangster movie, although some might (wrongly) perceive it to be, having watched the trailer.

I really adore (some of) Jim Jarmusch' work. But I do get bored by some of his movies as well. Jarmusch has a great knack for telling stories about people, who just wander about. Really. That's all they usually do in his movies. All of his movies are about people wandering around searching for something, waiting for something, escaping from something. Walking, waiting, wandering around. He has perfected these "wandering" storylines. He always slows his movies down to a level which is very uncommon and sometimes bordering on boring. The latter unfortunately is the case with "No limits No controls". It is basically a rather boring movie only interesting for die hard Jim Jarmusch fans, like myself . It is suited for those who love to relate to 100 year old paintings or movies no one has ever heard of beside an incrowd of movie geeks.

Soundtracks in Jarmusch'movies are always eccentric. The music by "Boris" is impressive, edgy and heavy, but I felt it wasnt suited for the mood of this picture. The photography was lacking in originality, although some shots were very gorgeous, because of the beauty of Madrid. BUT the photography was almost entirely consisting of still shots, which were mostly not very impressive. Director Wes Anderson has perfected this still photography in his movies, many others have tried to copy it, but failed at it. So did the photographer in "No limits No control".

Acting is great though. Great leading actor, which I had never heard of before. What a powerful face. He indeed doenst have to say anything, which he doesnt. Almost a silent movie, little to none dialogue. But it works. It creates some kind of mystery. Another trade mark of Jim Jarmusch. And there is also a great supporting cast although they only appear very short: Bill Murray (3minutes), John Hurt (5minutes), Abbass (5 minutes), Tilda Swinton (only 15 seconds), being pushed inside a car...

Trivia endnote: The end credits mention "Quantum respect and broken flowers to Bart Walker". This Bart Walker fellow is one of the most thanked characters in movie history, because the man has a staggering 30 special thanks credits to his name at Imdb. He must be some sort of mysterious muse for Jim Jarmusch and other directors, because many great directors have thanked this Bart Walker guy many times over the last decades.

I'm not going to waste anyone's time with subjective yammering, whether it be positive ("a cinematic tour de force!") or negative ("pretentious artsy fluff!") because, let's face it, those comments don't mean squat to anyone but the person saying it.

Instead, just rifle through this list of movies and if you liked any of them, you'll probably like this movie.

"Tetro" (director Francis Ford Coppola, 2009), "Broken Flowers" (director Jim Jarmusch, 2005), "Before It Had a Name" (director Giada Colagrande, 2005), "A Scene at the Sea" (director Takeshi Kitano, 1991), "Der Himmel über Berlin" a.k.a. "Wings of Desire" (director Wim Wenders, 1987), "Paris, Texas" (director Wim Wenders, 1984).

If you haven't heard of, or seen, any of those then just bear in mind that "Limits of Control", like the movies mentioned above, is very slow, almost uneventful, without a lot of revealing dialogue to carry the story. These stories are told in images, and it can be a real challenge keeping up, not because there are a lot of crazy twists and turns, but because there's almost nothing. I could sum up the plot of this movie in 8 words: "a day in the life of a hit-man". But if you're up for a challenge, give it a shot.

An abstract reflection on power and its transience. A risky film by Jim Jarmusch which, despite having stars in secondary roles, having the exoticism of being filmed in Spain and having many of the qualities to which this irreverent North American independent filmmaker has accustomed us, ends up leaving a slight bitter taste in the mouth.

Deep down because Jarmusch stripped the film of everything superfluous, summarizing it as a bare course, without a classic plot beyond the essential message. Life is short and all power is vain and transitory. A simple journey whose destination is discovered at each stop.

I was thinking that this was the abstract baby Lost in Translation and The American had, and just like that Bill Murray eventually makes an appearance. The way he looked at the skull on his desk really made me smile.

The reason I watched this movie was because of Boris & Sunn O)))'s contribution to the soundtrack, and that was the only reason. Well, I was in for it! Personally I don't think this drone / doom metal soundtrack fits this movie, or almost any movie, but surely I am biased. And perhaps I've just listened too much to the songs beforehand so that I find they are too cut down, repetitive and out of place here. Boris's music worked in Kokuhaku, though.

Also, did I get what The Limits of Control was about? Not overall, and I didn't like the unrealistic dialogues. It made the dominating silence in the movie seem more meaningless and less thought-provoking. Still, having random (famous) people ramble on about long-winded, ambiguous and quite irrelevant topics didn't lack charm (I'm not being completely sarcastic, especially in John Hurt's case). But hey, it is a very symbolic and long-dragged movie that shrouds its various points with mystery. It is a full-blown "show, don't tell" piece of film. Make what you will of it; I was entertained throughout but I did not arrive at any satisfactory conclusion.

However, the wavering of the camera in the last second of the movie had me wondering. Did I limit this movie?

I think I can somehow imagine what Jarmusch was trying to deliver with this - some sort of an existentialistic feeling of being abandoned in this world, and how arts and music etc. reflect our world-view and life in general. May have worked in theory, but definitely not in practice. To me, Jim Jarmusches works are all about cutting the technical nonsense to the minimum, and replacing it with powerful inner depth, such as interesting and multileveled characters - this one seemed to be the other way around.

The whole thing smelt like new wave and Godard ten miles away, with the whole style, and all the references to it (for example the Spanish girl holding the gun to Bankolé's face was almost exact reference to Godard's Made in U.S.A.) - and I didn't like the scent of it one bit. It was superficial, and didn't evoke any feelings in me. It was like Jarmusch was trying to speak with a language that wasn't his own. And the whole anti-capitalist "black James Bond" theme came as just naive to me.

About the only things that left me a good taste in my mouth, was the feeling of loneliness and emptiness that it delivered, plus John Hurt's short appearance with his monologue with the Kaurismäki- reference. That's about it, and even the mood was almost ruined by the two-pence Neil Young that kept on howling on the back.

Never would have believed to say this about a Jarmusch movie, but it was a huge disappointment.