Five different cab rides in five location in the world experience a surprise similar tonight. They try to explain the reason to end their unexpected circumstance.
With this, his fourth commercially released feature, Mr. Jarmusch again demonstrates his mastery of comedy of the oblique.
EmanuelLevy.Com
September 16, 2006
Revisiting his interest in oblique comedy, Jarmusch explores a primal relationship, that of a passenger and taxi driver, using the cab as a temporary shared world, from which one party may emerge shaken up or feeling differently about himself/herself
Night on Earth dawdles a bit, and a couple of the segments, notably the one in Helsinki, feel like half-baked epiphanies. Throughout, though, there are moments that catch you delightfully off guard.
At the end, we have learned no great lessons and arrived at no thrilling conclusions, but we have shared the community of the night, when people are unbuttoned and vulnerable - more ready to speak about what's really on their minds.
Though it may take a while to get Jarmusch's gist, hang in there; by the time Tom Waits growls his lovely closing waltz over the credits, Jarmusch has shown us moments most filmmakers don't even notice.
