The Limits of Control (2009)

THE LIMITS OF CONTROL  (2009)  ¢ ¢ ¢
    D: Jim Jarmusch
    Isaach de Bankolé, Tilda Swinton, Paz de la Huerta,
    John Hurt, Bill Murray, Gael Garcia Bernal, Hiam Abbass
The Jim Jarmusch tour of Spain, starring Isaach de Bankolé as a stone-faced mystery man moving diamonds around, meeting his contacts in cafes and hotels and train cars, and passing the goods and receiving his coded instructions in match boxes. The orders for his first assignment are cryptic. Go to the towers. Go to the cafe. Watch for the violin. And this: Reality is arbitrary. Is it ever. We're in Jim Jarmusch territory for sure, a meditative reflection on art, life, stillness, espresso, and what it means to be a bohemian. Where a major plot development is when de Bankolé's shiny blue suit changes to a brown one or a gray one. Where the flight he catches to Madrid is on Air Lumière, and the pickup truck he gets a ride in later on has a sign painted on the back in big white letters: LA VIDA NO VALE NADA. "I honestly have no idea whether this image came from a dream, or a film," Tilda Swinton tells de Bankolé at one point, and that's the way it is with the movie itself: trancelike, repetitive, like a dream you keep having, with endless variations, over and over again.