Jim Jarmusch's "Paterson": The Wheels on the Bus go Round and Round, and Round, and...

Warning: Contains Spoilers. 

Paterson, portrayed by Adam Driver, has a life of routines, of quiet and simple cycles. He wakes up at roughly six in the morning, eats cheerios from a glass bowl, and then heads to the bus depot to drive busses for work. He returns home, looks perplexed at the mailbox which is tilted; he straightens it. He enters, chats to his partner, Laura, portrayed by Golshifteh Farahani, about her day, usually filled with creative whimsy. He has dinner with Laura. At some point he changes his shirt from his bus drivers uniform into a casual shirt, and heads for an evening walk with their dog, Marvin, to a bar. He has a beer, walks home, goes to bed with Laura. Throughout he writes poetry in his notebook, honing a handful of poems over the week, at lunch time, while waiting for his shift to start, and in the evening in his makeshift study.

We are shown Paterson's daily rituals, spiced with random and unexpected events throughout; the recurring presence of twins, chats with strangers, minor dramatic occurences. Paterson's regimented lifestyle is partially explained with a portrait of him in Marine Parade dress on display. We are shown Paterson's life a day at a time, each day ritualistic but different to the last; but, what is there to suggest that Paterson is not stuck in a weekly cycle? The first thing that made me question Paterson's perceived reality is the unchanging weather -as a Brit who works outdoors I was envious- but then I began to think more about the final scene, where we are shown essentially the exact same morning scene as the previous 'Monday' section, but aren't shown the time; what if it is the exact same time he awoke the previous Monday?

If this is some sort of dream, heaven or Matrix loop, then the wooden, clichéd and saccharine conversations are at least explained. Paterson is but a bus driver yet has a lovely home, a dog, and a partner who he apparently financially supports. Laura has no daily cycle; she is in constant bounds of curiosity, creativity and change. What if she instead has a weekly cycle? Unlike every couple in the universe bar the filthy rich, Laura and Paterson don't talk about money; Paterson stumbles minorly when Laura wants to buy an expensive guitar & self-tutoring set, but doesn't even mention the money before finally saying yes.

Weather and riches aside, Paterson's cycles, daily or weekly, feed the viewer; despite having a defintie plot, the film is like a soothing fountain, calm, never ending, never unsettling. It is a snapshot portrait of that most sought after and seemingly impossible of human desires: contentedness.