When you enter the world of Jim Jarmusch, you’re in for a unique moviegoing experience. His films have a distinct style with offbeat characters and static scenes. His latest film ‘Paterson’ is a low-key story that contains meaning beneath the surface of everyday life. It’s about the small details of our daily routines and finding beauty within them. The film is about the creative process and the importance of how art makes us all human. With the help of Adam Driver’s brilliant performance, ‘Paterson’ is one of the best independent films of the year. This film celebrates the mundane and for us to appreciate the moments that are overlooked in our busy lives. Jarmusch reminds us that even the most ordinary lives are full of poetry.
The main character named Paterson (Driver) is a bus driver in the town of Paterson, New Jersey. He has no last name. Everybody just calls him Paterson. He gets up every morning at the same time without the use of an alarm clock. He puts on his watch, kisses his wife Laura (Golshifteh Farahani), eats a bowl of Cheerios and heads to work with his lunch pail. He seems like a simple, hardworking blue-collar guy but looks are often deceiving. He walks to work and takes in the scenery. Before starting his bus route, he whips out a notebook and begins to write a poem. You see, Paterson may be a bus driver to pay the bills but he also happens to be a poet. As we follow Paterson through his daily and weekly routine, we get to know him. He writes about everyday things in his life that deserve a closer look. That’s the beauty of poetry and that’s the beauty of this film.
Although Paterson’s job is repetitive and boring, he goes to work without complaint. We discover that Paterson is always observing life around him. As he drives his bus route, he listens to the conversations of his passengers. During his lunch break, he enjoys sitting on a bench at the majestic Great Falls of the Passaic River. He takes out his notebook and jots down another poem. As he scribbles lines to a new poem, the words magically appear onscreen. It’s Jarmusch’s way of celebrating poetry and the creative process. We learn that Paterson’s idol is the poet William Carlos Williams who wrote the epic poem entitled ‘Paterson’ that follows his belief: “No ideas but in things.” Williams is noted for inventing a fresh American form of poetry that focused on everyday life and common people.
When Paterson comes home from work, he is lovingly greeted by Laura who occupies her day with painting black and white patterns around their quaint household. She also has aspirations to start her own business making cupcakes with the same modern designs. When Paterson sits on the couch, their English Bulldog Marvin watches him from across the room. You’re not quite sure what the dog thinks of Paterson but later in the film you get a better sense how he feels about him. When Laura has another impulsive scheme to become a country singer and orders a guitar online, Paterson is always supportive of her. She is also supportive of Paterson’s poetry writing and encourages him to make copies of them for others to appreciate. Essentially Laura is Patterson’s muse. They are complete opposites but their love toward one another feels genuine and works for them.
When something out of the ordinary happens in Paterson’s daily life, it sticks out. During one of his evening walks with Marvin, he passes by a laundromat where a man practices his latest rap (Method Man). He admires the rapper like a poet. Another special moment comes when he walks home from work. He meets a little girl (Sterling Jerins) who identifies herself as a poet and reads one of her poems to him. “Water falls from the bright air/ It falls like hair/ Falling across a young girl’s shoulders.” He immediately has a connection with her as a fellow poet. Don’t let the redundancy in Paterson’s life fool you. We all have daily routines that feel monotonous at times. Jarmusch is reminding us to appreciate the breaks in those arduous patterns. In other words, he is encouraging us to stop and smell the roses. Do yourself a favor, take a break from your daily grind and go see the ingenious indie film ‘Paterson.’
