Poetry in motion (on a bus) and life as an African queen
Can you film poetry? That’s the question Jim Jarmusch sets himself with Paterson (15A) Played by Adam Driver, pictured left, Paterson earns his living driving a bus in Paterson, New Jersey. In between shifts, at breakfast, and sometimes when he’s just out walking, he writes verse in his notebook. The verse is underwhelming (Paterson’s hero is William Carlos Williams), but he likes it and his wife (Golshifteh Farahani) loves it. As she keeps saying – you really ought to keep a copy of it somewhere safe... Plotwise, that’s your lot. Indeed, the movie, which is broken up into seven sections – Monday to Sunday – has a Groundhog Day feel, because the days are so similar. It sounds dull, but you gradually realise the picture is structured like a poem, with verses/scenes that rhyme with one another.
Given Driver’s blank, long face you might be expecting a sobfest, yet it’s anything but. It’s not exactly a laugh-a-minute, but there is comedy here nonetheless – a lot of it courtesy of our hero’s bulldog, Marvin.
If you like your movies slow and thoughtful – no guns blazing – Paterson may suit you.
Love at first sight! What’s not to like? Quite a lot, if it’s 1947 and the love is between Ruth (Rosamund Pike) and Seretse Khama (David Oyelowo) in A United Kingdom (12A)
Ruth’s dad (Nicholas Lyndhurst) is furious at his lass for taking up with an African. Seretse’s tribesmen hate the idea of him shacking up with a European. And the Foreign Office is up in arms because Seretse’s country – did I mention he’s heir to the throne – borders apartheid South Africa, and we don’t want to upset them, old girl, do we?
It’s all true, by the way. The couple really did meet in postwar Blighty, decamp to his home country of Bechuanaland, and – eventually – live happily ever after. The trouble is, Amma Asante’s movie is so keen to fill you in on the history that it never gets up close and personal.
Dr Jenny Davin (Adèle Haenel) does just that in The Unknown Girl (15A)
Guilt-ridden at having not opened her surgery to a latenight caller who is subsequently murdered, she vows to bring the killer to justice.
Written and directed by the Dardenne brothers, the movie lacks the drama of their best work. But to watch a thriller in which the characters and settings and motivations all feel so naturalistic is a real treat.
Christopher Bray