Watch The Limits of Control For Free

Sadly Over-hyped

Highly Overrated But Still Good

Captivating movie !

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

An almost meditative experience with a sprinkle of humour and poetry thats pulls everything together as an excellent minimalist movie. If you are expecting a conventional narrative with plenty of action, this movie could be perceived as boring or vacuous. However, you will be rewarded if you go with the flow of the beautiful cinematography and pacing that helps to explore some interesting philosophical ideas in a visual way. Jarmusch uses repetitive imagery to create a sense of how the main character maintains balance and stability on his unpredictable journey through Spanish landscapes, mysterious strangers and art galleries. The slow and calm pace of the film allows the viewer to experience the main characters discipline, deep focus and intuition. Some great experimental filmmaking here.

Some reviewers have commented that the film moves too slowly. Assassinations usually do. I watched the film on DVD, on a 50" plasma HD screen, so the cinematography was good, but, talk about slow. At the 15th of 18 scenes, the DVD reverted back to #1 and I thought the film was intentionally deja vu until I noticed that every aspect was identical. That definitely intensified the slow pace. I moved to another DVD and finished watching the film.I only rented the movie because Paz De La Huerta did a Playboy spread and the commentary referred to her being nude in every scene. Unfortunately, she wasn't in many scenes and her most fascinating feature (her profile) wasn't the focal point of the shoot. When directors want to show nudity at its' best, the actress should be moving about so the viewer gets every imaginable angle.The ending wasn't climactic and caused me to wonder what made the matchbox trading so important to the script.

"The Limits Of Control" is a twisted and visually stunning experience with a philosophical background that leaves each one enough space to interpret the movie in one's own way. I think it all has something to do with two extremes: having a strong ego and only caring about one's own insignificant destiny on one side and always blindly accepting commands from others in an inhuman robotic way on the other side. But you are not forced to go that far and you can also take the movie as an eccentric and experimental film about a silent killer on a weird journey through Spain before committing his murder.It's quite hard to put the name of a genre on such a movie. The movie has a few suspenseful moments but not enough to be called a Thriller or a horror movie. There are no important action scenes in here. It's not a drama either because we only get to know a few details about the character and nothing at all about his boss, his contacts or his target. It's not a sexually driven movie despite a nude lady following the trace of the killer. Both are attracted to each other but the killer refuses to sleep with her because he wants to focus on his job only. I wouldn't call this film a mystery movie neither because nothing truly abnormal or surreal is happening. The only way to describe this movie is an experimental avant-garde film that can't be put into a certain category. That's also the main object of this film that wants the viewers to use their own imagination, to be creative and spontaneous or to confront this film with their very own reality. This is the kind of movie you can discuss and think about for a very Long time if you are able to open up your mind.What we get in here are in fact many stunning landscapes that almost look like paintings. It's a very artistic movie anyway. We get to see a whole lot of diversified paintings. We listen to a lot of diversified music from classical music over electronic music to improvised flamenco sounds. Many of the contacts the main characters meets talk about arts as well before transmitting new secret messages or weapons to the killer.The other thing we get in here are a lot of dialogues. While the main character only talks a few repetitive and mechanical words like "yes" and "no", almost all other characters apart of his boss, the nude lady and his target who talk a little bit more to him, approach him the very same way. They first ask the killer if he speaks Spanish which he always denies. Then, they ask him if he is interested in arts, hallucinations, sciences or anything else and start a short monologue about that topic. The killer remains silent and listens to them. These strange meetings always end with an exchange of two matchboxes that include secret messages written on a paper which the killer reads and then swallows with the help of two espressos in two cups.This movie surely isn't everyone's cup of tea and may frustrate some viewers. Others like me may though be charmed by this unusual and creative way of movie making. This film has enough details and intriguing scenes to justify multiple concentrated viewings. It's hard to ultimately rate this film but I really liked what I saw. The movie made me think a lot at some points or just adore the cool soundtrack, the beautiful Spanish landscapes, the beautiful actresses Yuki Kudo and Paz de la Huerta, the cool clothes of Isaach de Bankolé and the well written dialogues. If you're intrigued by my Review, watch this movie at all costs but if you think what i've just written sounds too strange you won't like this film.

This movies is nothing short of brilliant. Not because less than 200 words that are said, but mostly because the mind allows you to create what is happening. This allows for a multi-verse of options for what's really going on. Not a single character has a name either. The message I believe in this movie is more about imagination (clearly stated in the movie) and leaves the watcher hooked. I found this movie flipping through HBO and it took nothing short of "no words" to hook me. I instantly restarted the film and was amazed at the concept in which was defined here. I will say it lacked some detail, but I think that's what the write/director had in mind. It's noted on a couple of occasions to "use your imagination" Genius idea and creative simplicity. Oh and I watched it twice. The 2nd time it seem to make more sense. . . at least in my own mind.