Dir: Jim Jarmusch, US/UK/Italy/France/Ireland/Germany, 2025, 111 mins English/French/Italian with subtitles where appropriate
Cast: Adam Driver, Mayim Biralik, Tom Waits, Charlotte Rampling, Cate Blanchett, Vicki Krieps, Indya Moore, Luka Sabbat
Review by Carol Allen
The first features siblings Jeff (Adam Driver) and Emily (Mayim Bialik), who are driving out to the snowbound countryside where their ageing father (Tom Waits) lives. Jeff is ridden with guilt about his father’s apparent poverty. His simple shack of a home, the ancient truck he uses for getting around, his limited supply of food. Jeff is therefore laden down with gifts of food and such. Emily is more laid back. When they arrive, Dad is pathetically grateful to see them but the atmosphere is thick with awkward conversation and silences. And there is a neat sting in the tail to this one.
The second is set in Dublin where an elderly, wealthy novelist (Charlotte Rampling) is preparing for the annual visit of her two daughters, flamboyant, pink haired Lilith (Vicky Krieps) and her plain elder sister Tim (Cat Blanchett) The house is elegant, the ritual tea table is loaded with a variety of cream cakes and the atmosphere loaded with three pasts and presents unspoken. Lilith merrily lies about her life, never mentioning the fact that she is gay but rattling on about how well she is doing, while Tim is effectively ignored, something that has obviously been her fate since childhood. Rampling is magnificently chilly and remote, as she goes through the motions of motherly interest, waiting for the moment when she can drop the pretense and go back to her real life.
In the third story the parents are dead and their American twin son and daughter Billy (Luka Sabbat) and Skye (Indya Moor) have returned to their parents’ flat in Paris, where they spent part of their childhood. The parents we gather were adventurous, putting their desire for experiences above family life. If there’s anything in genetics theory, they must also have been very attractive, as their adult children are both gorgeous. When they visit the now empty flat, they go together through the various papers they have inherited and discover more about their parents than they knew when they were alive. Paris looks beautiful and there’s a neat cameo from Françoise Lebrun.as the concierge.
There are no big dramas or family confrontations in the films. Just the ironic realisation that as the child becomes adult both parent and child no longer really know each other. And did they ever? Probably not
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