68
Metascore
26 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 90Rolling StonePeter TraversRolling StonePeter TraversLimbo is vital personal filmmaking from a world-class practitioner of the art.
- 88ReelViewsJames BerardinelliReelViewsJames BerardinelliFor a while, Limbo seems like it might be a slow-burning romance and tale of redemption, but, as is often the case, Sayles takes his audience in unexpected directions (unexpected because they defy comfortable, traditional narrative routes).
- 75Chicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertChicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertSayles has started with a domestic comedy, and led us unswervingly into the heart of darkness.
- 75San Francisco ChronicleEdward GuthmannSan Francisco ChronicleEdward GuthmannBoth halves of the film are exquisitely acted and written, both are emotionally true, and yet they don't quite fit together.
- 75The A.V. ClubScott TobiasThe A.V. ClubScott TobiasThe weaknesses in Sayles' story and his occasional bouts with didacticism are far outweighed by the film's exceptional intimacy and humanity.
- 70The New York TimesStephen HoldenThe New York TimesStephen HoldenIf this oddly structured film feels like two short stories stuck together, there is enough solid glue joining them that they resonate off one another deeply.
- 67Austin ChronicleMarjorie BaumgartenAustin ChronicleMarjorie BaumgartenExcellent performances and the steadying camerawork of Haskell Wexler make Limbo a supremely engaging work, but this place to which Sayles condemns his viewers is just one rung removed from Purgatory.
- 63San Francisco ExaminerWesley MorrisSan Francisco ExaminerWesley MorrisBy aiming for something more ambitiously, ambiguously philosophical, [Sayles] forgot to include a heart and a soul.
- 50The first half of the film leisurely examines the deterioration and possible salvation of the soul in a once-glorious, rapidly disintegrating landscape. (His Alaska is full of closed factories, wandering tourists and strip mines.) The second half, with its contrived setup and its individual journeys of self-discovery (harvesting kelp and building fires), is artificial and sadly undermines all that's gone before.