The Limits of Control

I have liked Jim Jarmusch films in the past (see Broken Flowers and Lost in Translation). These films are slow and quiet, but meaningful. They tell a story, even if it is one of depression or loneliness. The Limits of Control is also slow and quiet, but too slow and too quiet. A man gets an assignment to do something, and then flies to Spain to do it. He meets people along the way, exchanging match boxes with messages in them. This fact in itself hooked me. I wanted to know what the man's mission was, what were the messages, etc. But after four meetings, four exchanges, and about four lines of dialogue (in total), I couldn't bear it. I tried a bit of fast forward, a bit of web browsing to pass the time, but still the film didn't go anywhere fast enough to get me to a resolution. The filming of Spain was nice, but not spectacular. The choice of architecture was interesting, but not alluring enough to pull me in. If I could offer a spoiler here to tell you how it resolves in order to save you the effort of watching this film I would. Alas, I don't know since I couldn't get through it.

1 star (out of 5)