An uneven combination of wet paint and amusing conversation

Rating: Null/10 (19 October 2004)

I like Independent movies. I like Jim Jarmusch. I really like that cast. And I really do enjoy coffee and cigarettes. So imagine my disappointment when I saw Steven Wright and Roberto Benigni struggling to improvise dialgoue in what was, amazingly, Jarmusch's choice for the opening act.
I took an acting class about 5 years ago, and this is exactly what the people in my class were doing. Improvising dialogue about nothing. And it shows. I cringed when I saw Wright and Roberto try to humor us by changing seats. This is why I went to acting class, so I wouldn't look this inept on the stage or on film.
With two or three exceptions, the rest of the vignettes in this 90-minute-or-so film are like watching paint dry.
I was particularly looking forward to Bill Murray's bit, but there wasn't very much for him to work with. Even a talented woman like Cate Blanchett can't do anything with her scene. It's overlong and loses interest a few minutes in.
Only two vignettes were worth watching: Iggy Pop and Tom Waits; and the best of the bunch: Alfred Molina and Steve Coogan. Molina runs away with the movie, (if it can even called that since it's basically a cadre of unrelated skits stringed together).
I think the idea for this film was a good one. But unfortunately, the conversation pieces in the skits are boring, consisting mostly of actors staring at each other while smoking a cigarette, drinking coffee and desperately trying to think of something meaningful or funny to say.
At one point, two men with French accents are having coffee and one is trying to extract information from the other. "What's wrong?" man #2 asked. "Nothing is wrong," replies man #1. And they go on like this for something like 10 minutes. You can tell Jarmusch didn't give any other direction except to tell man #2, "Try to find out what's wrong." and then tell man #1, "Don't tell him what's wrong. No matter what." These are like lessons in Acting 101.
It's more like a student film than something you should pay $20 or so to buy on DVD. If you rent it, I suggest watching the Iggy-Waits scene and the Molina-Coogan scene. Sure, give the movie a shot, but if you get up in arms, look for Iggy and Molina. If I had a DVD burner, I'd grab those two skits to keep. I highly advise against a blind purchase.