Must See Jarmusch

The Limits Of Control (2009)

Directed By: Jim Jarmusch

Review Written By: Colleen Wanglund
Mondo Film & Video Guide Contributor
IMDb.com Link

Written and directed by Jim Jarmusch THE LIMITS OF CONTROL (2009) follows a stranger played by Isaach De Bankole on a mission. The film opens with a cryptic meeting between the stranger and two other men. Not much is actually said except some strange dialogue like “Everything is subjective” and “Use your imagination and your skills”. A matchbox is passed and it contains a coded message, presumably some instructions. The stranger is directed to Spain where he meets a violin player who asks first if he speaks Spanish and second if he likes music. Another matchbox is passed and instructions given. The stranger finds a naked woman waiting for him in his room who offers him sex, but he tells her not while he’s working. There is another meeting with a woman and another matchbox. The stranger travels from Madrid to Saville and finally to Almeria.

In each meeting the stranger has two cups of espresso, he is asked if he speaks Spanish, and a matchbox is passed. Each meeting results in the stranger being asked about music, movies, and science. It never deviates from the pattern. The stranger is passed a matchbox with a small note hidden inside which he eats after reading. Finally the stranger is taken to his objective, a guarded compound in the desert. He is now going to complete his mission.

THE LIMITS OF CONTROL is the kind of movie that you can’t NOT watch. With minimal dialogue and some really cool music, this is one of those flicks that makes you watch it and enjoy it. The stranger is a very cool customer who doesn’t get flustered, even when he sees one of his former contacts being thrown into a car against her will. The conversations with his contacts are a bit bizarre, with one contact referencing Hitchcock and Welles. The movie actually has a Hitchcock/Welles vibe to it. The scenery is beautiful and the way the movie was shot is breathtaking and beautiful in its simplicity. The repetition of the lines “He who thinks he is bigger than the rest must go to the cemetery. There he will see what life really is: a handful of dirt” are cryptic but foreshadow the mission to come. One of my favorite scenes in the movie is while the naked woman lays on the stranger’s bed holding a gun and asks him “do you like my ass?”

I loved Paz de la Huerta as the nude girl….she was beautiful. Never mind the fact that there are appearances by Tilda Swinton, John Hurt, and Bill Murray. I really liked this movie. The whole vibe just struck me as very cool, like our mysterious stranger. It reminded me a bit of Quentin Tarrantino and a bit of David Lynch. I think Jarmusch did an excellent job. This is a must see in my opinion.

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