This is definitely an unconventional narrative about group of people in small town in Alaska. The writer/director John Sayles wanted to make an unconventional movie that plays with audience expectations . When there is a shotgun hanging on the wall the audience should expect that it will be used in the movie – that's how most movies work. The writers write movies as a mathematical calculation where 2 plus 2 gives 4 . They want to capture life in their movies , but often the shape their own reality based on logic with moral in the end. After watching many movies audience can have certain expectations about where the story is going, what will happen , what could happen and what will be the message.
Styles here tries to imitate life as much as it's possible. In the first half of movie we are introduced to characters that don't really play any important part in the second half – the lesbian couple , frustrated fisherman , jolly bartender. In fact "Limbo" is basically two movies in one , similar to "Full metal jacket". The first hour is a movie about people of small town , while the second hour pretends to be a thriller about three people. Calling this movie a "thriller" is a bit misleading , it's certainly no "Deliverance".
The acting is fine . Vanessa Martinez is believable as angry teenager , David Strathairn is effectively playing troubled, but good hearted handy-man . Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio is lovely as singer who can't settle with her life. There is some nice fun dialogue here and the movie is quite beautifully photographed.
"Limbo" doesn't work either as thriller or drama . The thriller elements are few and badly done . There is a lot of potential drama here : troubled past of Joe , the love triangle , the mother-daughter relationship. The problem is that everything is done with sensibility of soap opera . I'm sorry , but I wasn't move by anything here. The movie is too slow in some places. There is also an irritating amount of small talk that leads nowhere. And why waste your time of showing characters in the first half of the movie when they don't play any part in the second half . Kris Kristofferson is supposed to be an important character , yet his completely bland.
The biggest problem however is the ending . I don't mind open endings that allow the audience to use imagination and decide what happened in the end – "Mechanic" , "Inception", "The Killing of Chinese bookie" and few others. The fans of Sayles say that it was the only way to end the movie and there is some merit in their arguments . However , Sayles himself admitted that he didn't knew how to end the movie and the ending is the result of that . It feels like the movie misses a reel. In my opinion it's awful ending.
"Limbo" is kinda interesting experiment , but after two viewings I still think it's an ambitious failure. I give it 3/10.
Styles here tries to imitate life as much as it's possible. In the first half of movie we are introduced to characters that don't really play any important part in the second half – the lesbian couple , frustrated fisherman , jolly bartender. In fact "Limbo" is basically two movies in one , similar to "Full metal jacket". The first hour is a movie about people of small town , while the second hour pretends to be a thriller about three people. Calling this movie a "thriller" is a bit misleading , it's certainly no "Deliverance".
The acting is fine . Vanessa Martinez is believable as angry teenager , David Strathairn is effectively playing troubled, but good hearted handy-man . Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio is lovely as singer who can't settle with her life. There is some nice fun dialogue here and the movie is quite beautifully photographed.
"Limbo" doesn't work either as thriller or drama . The thriller elements are few and badly done . There is a lot of potential drama here : troubled past of Joe , the love triangle , the mother-daughter relationship. The problem is that everything is done with sensibility of soap opera . I'm sorry , but I wasn't move by anything here. The movie is too slow in some places. There is also an irritating amount of small talk that leads nowhere. And why waste your time of showing characters in the first half of the movie when they don't play any part in the second half . Kris Kristofferson is supposed to be an important character , yet his completely bland.
The biggest problem however is the ending . I don't mind open endings that allow the audience to use imagination and decide what happened in the end – "Mechanic" , "Inception", "The Killing of Chinese bookie" and few others. The fans of Sayles say that it was the only way to end the movie and there is some merit in their arguments . However , Sayles himself admitted that he didn't knew how to end the movie and the ending is the result of that . It feels like the movie misses a reel. In my opinion it's awful ending.
"Limbo" is kinda interesting experiment , but after two viewings I still think it's an ambitious failure. I give it 3/10.