Alfred Hitchcock once said, “Drama is life with the dull bits cut out.” So … what if you decide not to cut out the dull bits, but instead enhance and repeat them? The result is Paterson, a week in the life of a poetry-writing bus driver. Paterson (Adam Driver) lives in a small house with his wife Laura (Golshifteh Farahani) and her English bulldog in the town of Paterson. Neither man nor community thought to ask what happened to their missing “t,” so I won’t, either.
Every day, Paterson wakes next to his wife, checks his watch, goes to work, drives his bus, silently considers the conversations behind him, writes a little poetry, returns home to see what non black & white thing Laura has painted black & white. Then he takes the dog for a walk and has a single beer at the local pub. It’s not a bad life; it’s just terribly mundane as movie subjects go. There are running gags about Laura’s obsession with b&w art –Is she an aspiring set designer for Tim Burton?- her another day/another calling personality, the leaning tower of mailbox in the front yard, the kinda annoying/kinda lovable dog, the guy in the bar who can’t get over “it’s over” (William Jackson Harper), the peevish co-worker (Rizwan Manji), and a few other tidbits. Do we find it funny that every evening Paterson returns to a mailbox not quite perpendicular to the ground? Sure. Are we going to laugh out loud and
call this comic genius? Exactly whom do you think you are kidding?
Despite the proximity to NYC (20 miles), Paterson is decidedly small town – a same-size-as-life monument favors its favorite son, Lou Costello (Bud Abbott is from Asbury Park); the film repeatedly references relatively obscure New Jersey poet William Carlos Williams; Laura gets jazzed for a Saturday bake sale. Paterson’s own poetry varies – his first poem seems like an ill-conceived ad campaign comparing a matchstick to one’s first kiss. Later, he seems taken with poetry written by a little girl. And just when you think a film has run out of things to say, you realize, “hey, I write poetry, too. Maybe I should be the subject of an Indie film.”
Paterson often feels a little like a dead-end conversation:
(at the office)
“Check this out, a guy totally cut me off in traffic today!”
“No kidding!? What did you do?”
“I let him go on; angry impulse behavior can lead to accidents.”
That’s from my imagination, not the film. Effort is hard! Truth is half the people you know led more fascinating lives than Paterson just today alone. Most films have things happen in them. Paterson is among the exceptions. Thus, one conundrum remains: Does the title refer to the leading man or the town he lives in? We’ll never know! [Deadpan]Oh, you got me good, Jim Jarmusch; I am going to be stumped forever and ever.[/Deadpan]
This guy I know.
He drives a bus.
No fields to sew
Don’t raise a fuss
He walks the dog
He has a wife
Avoids the slog
Adequate life
He has a beer
Sits on a stool
Of middling cheer
One thing is cool:
His name is the same as the town where he lives!
His name is the same as the town where he lives!
His name is the same as the town where he lives!
Rated R, 118 Minutes
D: Jim Jarmusch
W: Jim Jarmusch
Genre: Seven days in the life
Type of person most likely to enjoy this film: Poetry-writing bus drivers, maybe?
Type of person least likely to enjoy this film: The impatient
