Everyone seems to love this movie, yet I did not. I want to say that it wasn’t a bad movie it’s just that I didn’t get it; however, certain parts actually felt contrived to me. Some of the conversations on the bus felt unnatural and scripted such as the one between the teenage girl and boy discussing some Italian anarchist. The bartender’s female friend came in to fuss at him for taking her cookie jar money. Her performance felt a little off as well. For much of the movie, I was painfully aware that I was watching actors rather than becoming immersed in the story.
Perhaps you need to be into poetry to like this movie. I am not particularly interested. So apparently, everyone in Paterson, New Jersey is a poet. There’s the poet William Carlos Williams, the main character also named Paterson (rolling my eyes at this little coincidence), some little girl waiting for her mother and sister who he happens upon, and a Japanese tourist. I didn’t find the poetry aspect of this movie the least bit interesting. To me the most interesting part of this movie is his relationship with his wife.
Paterson seems sad and unhappy with his life. Writing in his notebook is his escape from his dull existence. I’m not sure he’s very thrilled with his bus driving job, yet it gives him a chance to observe people and eavesdrop on passengers’ conversations. I’m not sure how happy he is with his wife either. Sure, they are extremely pleasant to one another and they seem to be affectionate enough and genuinely care for each other, yet something feels off. His wife Laura is beautiful. I get the feeling that was his main, if not his only, motivation for marrying her. Paterson seems to struggle at times to overlook his wife’s ditzy and eccentric manner. She conducts herself in the free-spirited manner of someone who has never had to worry about such mundane things as working to pay the bills. Such are the advantages of female beauty I suppose. She is constantly decorating everything in the house with black patterns on white background. Everything is black and white. One day she is going on about having a cupcake business and the next she is telling him that she wants to order a guitar with lessons for a few hundred dollars so she can become a country music star. During nearly every brief evening interaction with his wife, his face shows displeasure or discomfort with something she says. Most notably when she asks for the expensive guitar and again when she tells him she ordered it. Paterson however just continues to be quiet spoken and polite. Is he afraid to say anything which might upset her? When the guitar arrives, unsurprisingly it is black and white which is probably why she wanted it in the first place. Despite Laura’s somewhat childlike frivolity and naivety, she did make over $200 selling her cupcakes at the farmer’s market and she learned an impressive amount on the guitar in the first day. Perhaps Paterson is simply doing his best to support his wife and avoid negativity while he bears the brunt of the real world. It seems odd to me that although he is gone all day at work, he only spends an hour or so with his wife before he takes the dog for a “walk” and stops to hang out in a bar. This furthers my belief that their relationship is based primarily on sex and beyond that they have no real connection. His life wouldn’t suck so bad if they were actually friends and could share common interests and truly enjoy each other’s company outside the bedroom. She seems a little too eager to have him take the dog for a walk every evening. I actually suspected her of having an affair at one point.
Anyhow, Paterson is distraught when his notebook is destroyed by the dog. (Should have made copies like is wife urged him so often to do.) This is when he has the strange interaction with the Japanese poet tourist who gives him a new notebook when parting ways. So, it seems he’ll get over his loss and soldier on.
Look, we all bring a bit of ourselves into the interpretation of a movie. We see things from our perspective which is shaped by our life experiences. Perhaps I did not like this movie because I could not relate to the main character. Although pleasant and open to others, he is completely void of any personality. The only things he ever says to his wife is in response to her questions.
Bottom line is that I was unable to care about the main character, Paterson. His life is boring because he is boring. Although he has nothing to offer, he does manage to touch the lives of others by just being there and listening. The only real things he has to say, he writes in his notebook, which is destroyed and lost forever. The true tragedy of this story is not that he lost his notebook, but that he chooses to put himself into the notebook rather than share himself with his wife and others.