PATERSON – Rated R

PATERSON – Rated R – 1 hr. 58 mins.

 Starring Adam Driver, Golshifteh Farahani, Rizwan Manji and Marvin (aka Nellie, the dog 😉 )

Writer and Director James Jarmusch leads us into his creative tapestry of the trails and tribulations of everyday life, forcing us to focus on the poetry that lives within each waking moment we possess…THIS IS PATERSON?

Living out his mundane life as a bus driver, we meet Paterson (Adam Driver), struggling to find time to incorporate his one true passion ~ writing poetry ~ into his less than tranquil living arrangement with his beautiful wife Laura (Golshifteh Farahani), and their less than perfect dog Marvin.

Day, after day, after day – Paterson lives out his life passing the time driving around the town that shares his same name, and enjoying a beer after work each night at a local dive.

With the encouragement of Laura to get his poems published ~ or at least copied from his “secret notebook” ~ Paterson makes a commitment to find time to copy his works, so they won’t be lost to the outside world.

As the little moments from his life continue to fill his mind, and the pages of his notebook in prose, Paterson tries to support Laura’s creative passions each day too. Whether the focus is baking, painting, fashion or guitar playing – Paterson welcomes his wives constantly changing direction in life, and their incredible passion for one another’s existence in this life too…

I give PATERSON a rating of WAIT AND CATCH THIS FILM on DVD, NETFLIX or STREAMING! Even though the creative flow of this film did feel quite inviting when it began, the slow storytelling and quirky emphasis on our creative processes just didn’t compel me throughout its frames. Driver is good as the bus driver, with a heart of gold and poems constantly running through his head. Farahani’s beauty and ADD qualities were also enjoyable to view, but the insignificant side stories throughout just seemed to get in the way of what Jarmusch had set out to convey with his latest film. I was also intrigued by the significant role played by Nellie the dog throughout this film as well, but the lack of emotion towards him, especially when his mischievousness played out on screen, made me question this significant portion of the storyline too. If you an Adam Driver fan or if films that bring you to question your own life, existence, and creativeness entice you, then please head out the theater this weekend to catch PATERSON. But I would personally suggest you wait to experience this okay film on DVD, Netflix or streaming instead, when it releases on these formats, as a better alternative…

Kathy Kaiser