In short, cities at night are beautiful, and taxi drivers generally drive poorly.
This film focuses on five short stories that happened at almost the same time and on the same night to five taxi drivers in five cities: Los Angeles, New York, Paris, Rome and Helsinki. Directed and written by Jim Jarmusch, it is not a pretentious film, quite the opposite, and does what films should do: entertain us with five good stories. Obviously, being Jarmusch, these stories touch on a lot of the more human side of common characters.
Regarding the stories told in the film, we can summarize them in a message that will not please taxi drivers: in this film, they drive terribly badly and are unlikely to prove competent in their work. The story set in Los Angeles is perhaps the most uninteresting because, in fact, nothing happens except the taxi ride. I also didn't really like the story set in Paris, after all none of those characters seemed the least bit friendly, they were all idiots. The rest are better: the story set in New York is quite moving and shows the more human and understanding side of a grumpy (it seems they are all like that) New Yorker; In Rome, we have a spirited taxi driver who decides to take advantage of the ride with a priest to confess his most outrageous bedroom peccadilloes; in Helsinki, there is a suffering taxi driver telling his sorrows to three drunk passengers.
Okay, the film isn't exactly the most interesting or the most appealing, it doesn't have a flashy script and the stories told aren't even anything brutally interesting, but the truth is that the film, with a very bizarre comedy style, works. And the actors, who are very well selected, contribute a lot to this. Despite not liking the segment in which she appears, Winona Ryder is quite competent in her role and leaves us with a very pleasant feeling. Giancarlo Esposito and Armin Mueller-Stahl also don't leave us disappointed because they both interact wonderfully well and create a very good work dynamic. Roberto Benigni is virtually himself, anyone who is already familiar with the style and humor of this unique Italian actor will not find any major surprises here. Matti Pellonpaa does what he needs to do, but moves more discreetly than any of his colleagues. On the negative side, I found Rosie Perez perfectly irritating and histrionic, Gena Rowlands is excessively pedantic even though that wasn't her intention, Beatrice Dalle is rude and unfriendly, Isaach De Bankolé has no interest and sometimes seems stupid in his dialogue and attitudes.
Technically, the film exudes "B series" from every pore: the cinematography does not reveal any detail beyond the average, but what it does is well done; the visual and sound effects are effective but equally discreet; taxis really seem to be reliable vehicles and not theater props pulled by some trailer. The nighttime urban landscapes, with their lights and neon (it was still very fashionable) are everything we expected, and they are beautiful, but they are not the kind of beauty that would make us stare in rapture. I enjoyed observing the use of different languages in the various locations where everything happens. The clock and globe effects worked very well, but they feel quite cheap. However, what I have to consider bad is the irritating soundtrack, which seems to mock the film itself.
