![]() He awakes shortly after 6am, has a bowl of cereal that looks suspiciously like Cheerios, walks to his job driving the #23 bus through the streets of Paterson, listening in on conversations (often with a broad smile on his face) of passengers who talk about anything from Italian anarchists to boxer Hurricane Carter and comedian Lou Costello. There's too much variation in his day to call it a takeoff on Groundhog Day, but it does have that "same old, same old" quality. Like most people with jobs and families, Paterson has a daily routine. It is about what works and even (wonder of wonders) about a marriage that is not falling apart. The film has little conflict, family dysfunction, or mental health issues. Though his loving, energetic, somewhat scattered wife Laura (Golshifteh Farahani, "Finding Altamira") keeps asking him to make copies of them, he resists the idea, preferring to keep them in his secret notebook. He writes a new poem every day (or finishes an old one) on the #23 bus he drives before and during his trip. He is a poet whose Haiku-like verses (actually written by Ron Padgett) are reminiscent of the city's own poet William Carlos Williams. ![]() Performed by a brilliantly authentic Adam Driver ("Midnight Special"), Paterson is not only the name of the city in New Jersey known for its resident poet William Carlos Williams, but is also his name. I'm not sure if Jim Jarmusch ("Only Lovers Left Alive") in Paterson wants to make America great again by giving us his vision of the way it used to be, or is telling us that we only have to look around us to discover that it's great right now. The Japanese poet says, "This could be a poem by William Carlos Williams." And, indeed, that is what we have just seen. Paterson says, no he is only a bus driver. That is all this film is about and we are told, point blank, at the end of the movie: the Japanese poet asks Paterson if he, too, is a poet. What Jarmush has given us is an excellent example of what these two poets told us years ago: there is value in the small and simple things of life. Williams also offers an answer in his works: there is an inherent value in the the "thingness of things" whether it is the bowl of plums reference in this film or in the red wheelbarrow. McLeish offers an answer in his poem, "Ars Poetica" where he asserts a poem does not "mean," it simply is. Unlike many of today's films, this one celebrates the essence of a film by just being a film. In fact, the answer is in the movie itself! If you are a fan of William Carlos Williams or a fan of Archibald McLeish (both poets), then the answer is throughout the film. I decided to watch this film because of two friends who claimed they did not understand what is happening and that they did not know how to watch a movie. The script and situations also provide an appropriate amount of humor. The movie is just a character study of a gentle and honest man just finding his own path through life, one week at a time. These are not your usual "Roses are red and violets are blue" type of poem, instead they are the thoughtful, non-rhyming sort, "Today I made my own sandwich, it gives me great pleasure to do so, I can let my wife sleep late" type of poem, although that is not one of them. ![]() A punctual man he arrives to work early and sits in his bus, writing, until he is given the signal to start his route. ![]() In between we see Paterson's daily life, his hidden passion is writing poetry in a little book he carries around with him. The story starts on a Monday morning and ends the next Monday morning. Golshifteh Farahani (of Iranian heritage) is his happy wife Laura who likes to decorate everything white and black, her home, her clothes, the curtains, even her cupcakes. He is intelligent but quiet, every weekday he gets up a little after 6AM, eats his small bowl of Cheerios, and walks with his lunch to his job as a municipal bus driver. Adam Driver is really very authentic as Paterson, and he lives in Paterson, NJ. As others have commented this is a very satisfying movie but difficult to explain why. It took us a while but we finally got around to seeing this movie, at home on DVD from our public library.
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