The Limits of Control
Focus Features | Release Date: May 1, 2009 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
41
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 22 Critic Reviews
Positive:
3
Mixed:
11
Negative:
8
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
90
Los Angeles TimesBetsy Sharkey
A little like guided meditation with suggestions floated, waiting, left untethered. It's up to you to distill meaning -- which will leave some convinced the director is merely self-indulgent, and others deeply satisfied. Read full review
80
Village VoiceJ. Hoberman
Like everything Jarmusch, The Limits of Control is calibrated for cool. Read full review
75
Philadelphia InquirerSteven Rea
Almost absurdly quiet and observant, The Limits of Control is about the space between the action, the steps along the way. Read full review
60
The New York TimesManohla Dargis
A nondramatic work best appreciated as a pure image-and-sound event. Read full review
60
EmpireAndrew Male
Cool, handsome, self-assured... but, as the existentialists might say, what’s the bloody point? Read full review
58
The A.V. ClubScott Tobias
Too much of The Limits Of Control feels canned and airless, so stifled by Jarmusch's obsessions that it loses all sense of surprise. Read full review
50
The Hollywood ReporterMichael Rechtshaffen
Unfortunately, the whole seldom adds up to the sum of its illustrious parts, and Jarmusch's trademark deadpan quirks seem to have gotten lost in the translation. Read full review
50
The New YorkerAnthony Lane
As it is, the movie's lethal climax, with its vague protest against corporate control--and hence in favor of art, music, drugs, or whatever--feels like a poor theft from a more conventional film. Read full review
50
ReelViewsJames Berardinelli
While The Limits of Control offers some picturesque photography and grist for thought, it is ultimately too much like The Emperor's New Clothes to warrant anything approaching enthusiasm. The message is banal and the means by which it is presented reeks of artifice and pretention. Read full review
50
Rolling StonePeter Travers
Even the great ones hit snags. With The Limits of Control, Jim Jarmsuch gets tangled up in his own deadpan. Read full review
50
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Liam Lacey
Only a few events happen in this minimalist film, and most of them keep getting repeated through most of its running time. Read full review
42
Entertainment WeeklyOwen Gleiberman
The Limits of Control, even with its flow of star cameos (Tilda Swinton, Gael García Bernal, a frenetic Bill Murray), is a listless long pause that rarely refreshes. Read full review
42
Portland OregonianShawn Levy
It's exactly the film Jarmusch wanted to make, but it's also smug, excruciating, borderline pointless. You could call it a deliberate effort to invert the conventions of the thriller; you could also call it, more rightly, a self-deluded disaster. Read full review
40
VarietyTodd McCarthy
Worst of all, it just feels tired and recycled. Read full review
38
USA TodayClaudia Puig
It might be that Jarmusch (Broken Flowers) is experimenting with creating a pastiche of dreamlike sequences that audiences can interpret as they wish. Or it may be merely pretension and hubris that fuels such a stylized and insubstantial story. Read full review
38
New York PostLou Lumenick
This is one of those movies that's too cool to have a plot. Read full review
38
Boston GlobeTy Burr
Jarmusch has come up with a dud. Read full review
30
Chicago ReaderJ.R. Jones
Jarmusch makes some effort to deliver on the promise of suspense near the end, with de Bankole stalking despicable businessman Bill Murray at his fortresslike compound in the hills. Read full review
25
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalle
The result is that rare movie specimen, a completely intentional, expertly guided work of art that fails almost completely. Read full review
20
SlateDana Stevens
This beautifully shot and painstakingly constructed film is a self-indulgent bucket of hogwash. Read full review
12
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
Jarmusch is making some kind of a point. I think the point is that if you strip a story down to its bare essentials, you will have very little left. I wonder how he pitched this idea to his investors. Read full review
0
Wall Street JournalJoe Morgenstern
Jim Jarmusch's Dada meander, shot by Christopher Doyle, is empty and excruciating -- that's really all you need to know. Read full review
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