As Tilda Swinton's Blonde says when she meets Isaach De Bankolè's Lone Man in Jim Jarmusch's Limits of Control, "The best films are like dreams you're never really sure you had." Filled with striking visuals, moody music, esoteric conversations, and seemingly disconnected individuals converging into one narrative, Limits of Control is a film that definitely has the feel of some of my most vivid dreams. But in the same way that my dreams can be beautiful and haunting, so can they be almost maddeningly incomprehensible. And so is also true of Limits of Control.

A film about one man on a mysterious mission and the paths and people that lead him closer and closer to its completion, Limits of Control is basically a series of encounters between De Bankolè's Lone Man and a variety of individuals with some sort of philosophical thought and series of numbers to share. It is a film in which every image, line, and type of shot means something. It is an experience after which you just want to corner Jarmusch and ask him what in the world it was about (and to which he would probably reply that he leaves that up to each individual viewer). With some pretty blatant depictions America as a force of control and people of other nationalities as outside or opposing that control, the film does seem to have a political message of some sort. With references to music, film, and art in general, it seems to speak to a concept of reality much too fluid and creative to be defined by any concrete rules, laws, or limits. And as for the implication of its title, I'm going to have to guess that it has something to do with the idea that while our world is one in which control is sought by almost everyone out there, every one of us also holds a certain spirit or power which simply cannot be taken away from us by another.

As for what the sometimes yawn-inducing, sometimes fascinatingly head-scratching film has me thinking about a few days later, strangely enough, it's actually not about the limits of control but rather the impressive and valuable nature of that which does hold a sort of power over us. As much as everyone in the film keeps telling De Bankolè that reality is essentially non-existent and that who we are and the lives we lead need only be defined by the limits of our own imagination, the interconnectedness of De Bankolè's journey actually causes me to ponder what an amazing reality it is we live in that such a seemingly random journey could come together into such a perfect plan.

From the film's opening to its end, there is the sense that De Bankolè's journey has already been laid out before him. Although he does not know what the next step is until he gets there, there is always a clue or a person waiting to direct him to his next destination. With every person walking by, every word uttered in passing, and every image that flashes before him potentially holding the key to his mission, the journey that De Bankolè takes is one which cannot help but make you consider all the puzzle pieces that fit together to bring any of us to where we are today (think a much more mind-bending Slumdog Millionaire). And in its seemingly perfect construction that would certainly evade any outsider trying to figure out where De Bankolè is headed, it makes me think of the often confusing yet all-knowing hand of God that I believe guides my steps.

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