The movie is typical John Sayles, which is to say that if you don't like his work, you won't like Limbo. I do, and I did. His movies, I feel, are like reading a novel -- there's a thoughtfulness, texture, deliberate pacing, and elegance that you rarely see in cinema. As Sayles said afterwards, "Limbo" isn't just a title -- "it's a consumer warning." Which is to say, if you like everything wrapped up in a neat little package, this is not the movie for you. It's complex and ambiguous, and the ending is, well, let's say open to interpretation.
Leads David Straithairn and Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio are
both terrific,
giving wonderful, heart-aching performances as two people who are
battered
by life, yet still have enough hope in them to take the risk of opening
themselves to each other, however tentatively. The movie is set
in
glorious Alaska and milks the metaphors inherent in that setting:
the frontier mentality where you're free to reinvent yourself
endlessly,
the place of last resort, the fragile boundary between civilization and
wilderness.
But the audience I saw it with didn't deserve this movie (it's been a while since an audience rant, hasn't it?). When Sayles asked for questions, the first thing half of the crowd -- the pedantic, unimaginative half -- shouted was, "What's up with the ending?" Then there was the woman who asked if it was really necessary for Mastrantonio's character to be smoking all during the movie. Sayles, giving the question the short shrift it deserved, said curtly, "Yes." The woman persisted: "What kind of role model do you think that presents? Did the tobacco industry pay you?" Lady, the MOVIE industry barely pays John Sayles. (The character is, to be brief, a mess. It would have been in character for her to be shooting up, for god's sake. It reminded me of Jerry Seinfeld's old joke about the laundry detergent that gets out bloodstains: "If you're trying to get blood out of clothing, maybe laundry is not your first priority." If you're taking this woman seriously as a role model, lung cancer should be the least of your worries.)
Finally, a
quick recommendation for a movie review site: www.stomptokyo.com.
I recommend clicking on any review with one star next to it, which will
get you the likes of Shakes the Clown (touted on its box as
"the
Citizen Kane of alcoholic clown movies" and part of Adam
Sandler's
career that I'm sure he'd rather forget) and Showgirl Murders.
They also have pretty clever reviews of legit movies. Plus, a
tribute
page to Pia Zadora.
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