Limbo | Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, David Strathairn | More great storytelling by John Sayles

Limbo | Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, David Strathairn | Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio sings a Tom Waits song...what else do you need to know?

DVDs:

Limbo

	Limbo Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, David Strathairn Sony Pictures, 1999 average customer review:based on 89 reviews view larger image
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There are three unforgettable characters in John Sayles's contemporary adventure-drama set in Alaska. They are never seen but live only in a frontier diary found by teenager Noelle De Angelo (Vanessa Martinez). The life of the diary's narrator is much like everything in this movie: hanging in limbo. The first half of the film focuses on why men and woman turn to Alaska, a land still ripe with opportunity. A small town is at a crossroads, with its pulp mill and canning factory closed and new investors seeing different directions in which to take the area (one even boasts the state is the ultimate theme park). A local (Sayles regular David Strathairn) is just escaping his past, taking up commercial fishing again. He attracts a traveling nightclub singer (Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio in her best role in years) who struggles daily with her daughter Noelle. Like any good theme park, Limbo presents the threesome with an unexpected adventure. In the wilderness, the three relative strangers learn more about themselves than was ever possible in town. Sayles's usual craftsmanship creates a singular blend of drama and suspense with an ending designed to ruffle feathers. Not as accessible as his breakthrough hit Lone Star, Limbo is nevertheless a hearty film from one of America's best storytellers. --Doug Thomas

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More great storytelling by John Sayles

Sayles scores again with this substantial story about a woman who wanders from one man to another with her troubled daughter in tow, eventually ending up in Alaska among some questionable denizens. The first hour is spent establishing the setting and characters, whereas the last hour focuses more on the challenges facing the man, woman, and teenage girl as they becoming unwittingly caught up in a situation that could get them all killed.
Beautiful scenery and great songs help to develop the film.
Sayles has the courage not to spell out the ending or to feed us formula as so many other filmmakers would have. That makes this film a good choice for those who are tired of the same-old same-old.

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Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio sings a Tom Waits song...what else do you need to know?

It's all there in my title...Mary Elizabeth is enough for me to watch this film, but for her to be singing an old classic Tom Waits song...(You'll have to watch it to find out which one)...so burst out of your Winnabago and get this film. THis DVD has the most interesting director's commentary I've heard yet. It makes you realize just what a collaboration a film really is, and also how each scene and each characters moods, motivations and actions are telling one story. This film ends on a profound plane. It puzzles some people who have seen it, but what it is doing is ending where the story really ends...not where the action ends. Thus, the ending tells us what the film has been about all along. Great stuff, and more films should have this intent.

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Neither Heaven or Hell...wish it would have been either!

"Limbo"....not Heaven, and not Hell, but somewhere in the lifeless in-between....waiting....for what?

That is how John Sayle's "Limbo" comes to the screen with majestic rivers and mountains of Alaska, and a cast of characters that are stuck between their past and future, uncomfortable in their existence in the present. All very high-minded and torturous to watch for 122 minutes. What did I like about this film?....Broadway Tony-nominated star Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio allowed to sing three complete songs in her sumptuous folksy "Judy Collins/Joan Baez voice!!! (The entire soundtrack holds this extremely tedious film together!) Her version of "Dimming of the Day" (also used in Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood (Widescreen Edition)) with shots of the Alaskan skyline, mountains,rivers and David Strathairn on his boat is beautiful piece of work by Sayles; too bad the rest of the film, with a "Sopranos" ending, is much too cluttered with plot and characters all in limbo also. That is the point of the film, and you will have to like that sort of thing if in order to get worth from this film. Alaska-lovers will delight in this film for the scenery. Plot and character lovers will "cut themselves" like the character Noelle does.

Sayles wrote this work and it is pretty typical, IMO, of his other films The Secret of Roan Inish, Casa de los Babys, Passion Fish and Lone Star. If you enjoy Sayles' work give "Limbo" a try.

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