Jim Jarmusch's deadpan comedy-of-the-night is a collection of five vignettes taking place in the enclosed space of a cab ride, each occurring simultaneously in five different cities and five different time zones -- Los Angeles, New York City, Paris, Rome, and Helsinki. The Los Angeles episode takes place at dusk, as high-powered casting agent Victoria (
Gena Rowlands) gets a ride from L.A. International Airport with tomboy driver Corky (
Winona Ryder), who would rather go on driving her cab than take up Victoria's offer to make her a superstar. In New York City, novice East German cabbie Helmut Grokenberger (
Armin Mueller-Stahl) has difficulty working the foot pedals to his hack, and his passenger, YoYo (
Giancarlo Esposito), ends up driving himself to Brooklyn, picking up the shrill-voiced Angela (
Rosie Perez) along the way. In Paris, an African cab driver (
Isaach de Bankolé) ejects a collection of drunken African diplomats from his cab and picks up a beautiful but surly blind girl (
Béatrice Dalle). In Rome, cab driver Gino (
Roberto Benigni) engages in a heartfelt monologue confessing his past sexual exploits to his passenger, a priest who is dying of a heart attack in the back seat. The film winds down in the last melancholy vignette, taking place in Helsinki, as taxi driver Mika (
Matti Pellonpää) picks up three inebriated workmen who regale him with hard-luck stories. But Mika has a much harsher story of his own to tell. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide