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During the holiday season, we’re usually inundated with images of excess and extravagance—of big, expensive gifts and gaudy holiday parties and tables overflowing with food. But writer/director Jim Jarmusch’s Paterson offers a completely different perspective, celebrating the simple, ordinary things in life.
Paterson stars Adam Driver as the title character, a city bus driver from Paterson, New Jersey. Every day, Paterson goes through the same routines: he wakes up, goes to work, drives people around town, has dinner with his wife, and ends the day by taking his dog for a walk and stopping by the neighborhood bar for a beer. Throughout the day, whenever he has an extra moment, he writes poetry in a notebook that he carries with him wherever he goes. Yet, despite his seemingly mundane existence, drama swirls all around him.
Paterson offers an intriguing look at the beauty of everyday life. On the surface, it’s a rather monotonous film—just the daily routines of a rather unremarkable bus driver. Paterson is a pretty dull and ordinary guy with a repetitive life. But there’s something fascinating about his routines—about the people he meets, the architecture of the buildings on his daily walk to work, and the snippets of quirky conversations that he overhears along his route through the city. All of those little details inspire his poetry—the thoughts and observations on the minutiae of his life that he scribbles in his secret notebook throughout the day. And Driver fits perfectly into the role. He’s shaggy and deadpan but ultimately likable, giving the character a quiet, laid-back kind of everyman charm.
But there’s so much more going on around Paterson than just his poetry and his bus route. His wife (Golshifteh Farahani) is exuberant and artistic and wildly eccentric, with a new life’s goal for every day of the week. Every day, she tries something new, whether she’s baking artistic cupcakes or creating a strange new recipe or redesigning the curtains or herself. And despite the fact that they make such an odd couple, she’s sweet and loving and supportive of his creative endeavors.
Each day brings something new for this straight-faced hero: a new adventure, a new character, a new poem. And, in the end, it all comes together in a sweet, funny, and often surprisingly enjoyable package.
Paterson isn’t a thrilling film. It doesn’t tell a powerful story, and it won’t inspire you to go out and make a difference in the world. It’s remarkably simple—just a slice of this ordinary man’s life—yet it’s a fascinating simplicity.
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