Synchronicity is the unifying force among the five separate threads.
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"Night on Earth" (1991) may be Jim Jarmusch on cruise control, but even Jarmusch-lite is better than ninety-five percent of everything else in the world.
In his previous film "Mystery Train" (1989), Jarmusch wove together three separate but overlapping stories all set on the same night in Memphis, TN. "Night on Earth" ups the ante by telling five stories that all take place on the same night, but this time in five separate locations: Los Angeles, New York, Paris, Rome, and Helsinki. The stories do not overlap this time, but share a common structure: they all take place during cab rides.
Each short story is, by design, somewhat contrived, but the least convincing is the Los Angeles segment. Wealthy casting agent Victoria (Gena Rowlands) reluctantly accepts a ride in a dingy cab driven by uber-tomboy Corky (Winona Ryder). The shtick here is that the successful Victoria is really lost, while Corky, who appears to be working a dead-end job, is the one whose life has turned out precisely according to plan. She loves driving a cab, but eventually she wants to be a mechanic. The condescending casting agent finds this cocksure attitude quite charming, and becomes convinced that Corky would be the perfect actress for the film she´s currently working on. But Corky matter-of-factly turns down the offer despite Victoria´s insistence that "Everyone wants to be a movie star." It´s a cute story, but then 19-year old Ryder works a little too hard to turn Corky into a chain-smoking, grubby-sweet girl who just wants to be one of the boys.
With the exception of the final sequence in Helsinki, the other stories echo the structure of the Los Angeles segment, pairing unlikely opposites in the cabbie-passenger relationship. In New York, an incandescent Giancarlo Esposito struggles to find a driver to take him to Brooklyn until a sweet-natured immigrant (Armin Mueller-Stahl) who doesn´t know how to drive gives him a fair shake. In Paris, the taciturn Isaach be Bankolé picks up a blind woman (Béatrice Dalle) who teaches him that he´s not the only victim of prejudice and misconception in the City of Lights. In Rome, Roberto Benigni performs a hilarious and filthy standup routine for a very unreceptive priest (Paolo Bonacelli).
Each of the pieces has its strengths and flaws. The Rome segment is the funniest by far, with Benigni in perfect form, but it is marred by a punch line that provides perhaps the only mean-spirited moment in all of Jarmusch´s films. Still, watching Benigni confess to the priest about how he used to fuck pumpkins as a child is unforgettable. The New York segment features the best all-around performances, even Rosie Perez in her shrillest tone fits in perfectly as she and Esposito settle into a deep philosophical argument: "Fuck you!" "No, fuck you!" "No, fuck you!"
The Helsinki segment ends the film on an unexpected down note. Poker-faced Matti Pellonpää picks up three drunken Finns who are trying to console a self-pitying friend who has just lost his job, his car, and possibly his wife (apparently they have country music in Finland too.) Pellonpää remains unimpressed, and tells them a gruesome story of his own that puts the world back into perspective.
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