The Limits of Control

Will test the limits of your patience.

The H-Bomb: Or, it will test the limits of your attention, because this latest offering from veteran indie oddball Jim Jarmusch sure doesn’t do much to hold it. The “story” (using that word in the loosest way possible) is about a hitman traveling around Spain on an assignment that’s never really explained to us. He meets up with various mysterious people played by the likes of John Hurt, Tilda Swinton, Gael Garcia Bernal, and some naked chick.

At these little meetings he always orders two cups of espresso, and his contacts give him a matchbox containing a small piece of paper, which he reads over and then swallows. Then, the contact will spout some incomprehensible lines of philosophical gibberish, then tell him to go to such-and-such a place and talk to so-and-so. Stick a bunch of scenes of our protagonist, played by Isaach De Bankole, walking around, riding on trains, meditating, not talking much, not boning the hot naked chick, and in general not doing much of anything at all, and you have “The Limits of Control”.

I must give Jarmusch credit, he has, either intentionally or completely by accident, created the ultimate cure for insomnia. Any time you’re having a restless night, forget the bottle of cheap wine and the Lunesta, just pop this cinematic sleep aid into your DVD player and let it play… you’ll be snoozing away in La-La Land in no time. Even if you down a few of those espressos that the main non-character loves so much, you’ll still be straining to keep your eyes open to the end. In many ways, this reminded me a lot of “The American”, a film I quite liked, except here the nuanced character development has been reduced to zero, the pretentiousness has been multiplied by about a thousand, and the boredom by roughly a million.

Jarmusch’s signature style has always been one of off beat minimalism and existential cool, and until now, I’ve genuinely enjoyed everything he’s done, and a few, like “Dead Man“, “Night on Earth“, and “Down By Law“, I absolutely love. But this time it seems he decided to strip away the quirky charm and personality that usually defines his work, and instead just go for straight up filmic masturbation… somehow satisfying himself, and nobody else.

I would swear that Jarmusch spent more time styling that ridiculous hairdo of his than he did on writing the script to this thing. From what I could gather, he was attempting pure cinematic minimalism, not dissimilar from Gus Van Sant’s more recent films. Though for me, the only one of Van Sant’s films made in this style that actually worked completely was “Elephant”, where he used the banalities of an average day at high school as a chilling build up to a Columbine-type massacre. Jarmusch’s film, however, has no such foundation, and therefore he is left with nothing more than an empty shell of a movie about a non-character taking part in a non-plot that leads to a non-ending.

Is there anything to recommend? Well, if you like looking at pretty pictures for a long time (another pastime our protagonist enjoys), then sure, since the cinematography by Christopher Doyle is quite lush and gorgeous. De Bankole is a gifted actor, and he could have given a strong performance, had he been given a script or a character to work with. But, he only had a non-character, and as a result, he gives a non-performance. I never thought I would say this about an actor with his abilities, but he does little more than take up space on the screen.

Most of the supporting cast members only have a scene or two each, in which they spout dialogue so hysterically pretentious I thought Jarmusch was attempting self-parody. “Sometimes the reflection is far more present than the thing being reflected.” “Wait three days until you see the bread, then the guitar will find you.” Sweet baby Jesus… they should be given a collective Oscar for being able to utter such drivel without vomiting.

Every good director is going to have the occasional dud, and for Jarmusch, “The Limits of Control” is definitely a dud. A dud that lands with a thud that’s the opposite of entertaining. Again, if you have a sleeping disorder, then definitely give this a watch. But if you’re looking for an independent film with interesting themes or interesting characters or… interesting anything, then I think you can pass on this indulgent snoozer in good conscience.