Limbo Review
by "Harvey S. Karten" (film_critic AT compuserve DOT com)June 6th, 1999
LIMBO
Reviewed by Harvey Karten, Ph.D.
Columbia Pictures
Director: John Sayles
Writer: John Sayles
Cast: Michael Laskin, Leo Burmester, Heminio Ramos, Dawn McInturff, Vanessa Martinez, David Strathairn, Tom Biss, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, Kris Kristofferson,
Back in 1890 the famous historian Frederic Jackson Turner declared that the American frontier was closed. Manifest Destiny had made its mark, the country had been fully explored, and presumably only the moon was left to survey. Turner should have seen "Limbo," yet another of writer- director-editor-novelist John Sayles's looks at contemporary American culture. Situating his story wholly in Alaska, Sayles wants to tell us that Seward's Ice Box is at once an overdeveloped, over-touristed theme park and a yet-to-be- charted piece of majestic land despite its encounters with hordes of summer tourists who mostly visit by ocean cruiser
He tells two stories in one, essentially. The first part includes a satirical view of a developer who wants to turn the entire state into a theme park with perfectly safe adventures for septuagenarian tourists from all over the mainland. The balance is a Robinson Crusoe-like melodrama of people stranded on a hopelessly unexplored and untraveled northern island to the north of Juneau. The audience will plausibly be divided into two parts as well: one with the patience to scan a slow-moving narrative with just a modicum of suspense but with an enormously satisfying examination of character; the other, the sorts who will take in the scenery in much the say they'd read a novel by James Michener but who, in the final analysis, might say, "So what?" Count me in as part of the former bunch.
You will need to give the film an hour or so of Robert Altman-style vignettes to understand its title. You'll see that Sayles is dealing not only with the physical limbo
of people marooned on a isolated island but with the emotional purgatory of individuals who are psychologically trapped by guilt, introversion, loneliness and bitter memories. With excellent rendering of his female characters, Sayles hones in on two unhappy women: Donna De Angelo, (Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio), a forty-ish lounge singer with a history of marital failure; and her alienated teen-age daughter Noelle (Vanessa Martinez), a pretty young woman with a creative mind and complex suicidal tendencies. While the unhappy chanteuse seems ready to give up on men,
she is immediately attracted to the brooding loner, Joe Gastineau (David Strathairn), once an all-American high- school basketball star whose knee injury disrupted his chance at a college education, leading him into a career as a fisherman--which was cut short by his responsibility for two deaths in a boating disaster. When Joe's half-brother Bobby Gastineau (Casey Siernazsko) turns up surprisingly to ask a favor, Joe, his new girl friend Donna, and Donna's daughter Noelle are led into the adventure of their lives, once which wholly belies the cocoon-like safety enjoyed by the elderly retirees stomping through the historic town of Port Henry.
If the story lacks the tension which a mainstream audience has the right to expect of a traditional tale of drug smuggling and survivalist travel, Sayles probably means his account to be just that. With his background (a psychology degree from Williams College), the director has made quite a name for his exploration of the contemporary American scene with this country's diverse population of often disparate fancies. His "Lianna," a study of a lesbian affair, is reflected in his current tale, which includes a business proposition that two gay women have with a disgruntled boat-owner, Harmon King (Leo Burmester). His "Brother from Another Planet" proved that Sayles could develop a character from outer space in a way that no sci-fi writer had quite attempted before. If "Matewan" concerned a West Virginia miners' strike in the 1920's, then "Limbo" would follow up by giving credence to the grievances of workers in a salmon packing plant. Throughout his career, Sayles has shown an ability to handle many characters within each story. "Limbo" is Sayles's
territory.
David Strathairn has come back from his miscasting in "A Midsummer Night's Dream" (where he seemed more like a bond trader than a duke) to deliver a delightfully under-acted portrayal of an loner getting by on odd jobs and treating a new romantic attachment with all the passion of a kindly grandfather. And did you know that Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio--who was underwhelming as the colorless wife of a wealthy Scotsman in Hugh Hudson's "My Life So Far"-- could sing like Judy Collins? With Vanessa Martinez as the cranky third wheel of this modern Swiss Family Robinson, "Limbo" moves at a deliberate pace toward its wonderful, open-ended conclusion--a Lady-or-the-Tiger resolution that might well frustrate a mainstream audience but which will encourage the more imaginative and sophisticated viewer. While the few shots of the Alaskan inlets surrounding Juneau could encourage interest in travel by a movie audience of popcorn-crunching couch potatoes, photographer Haskell Wexler never quite gets the opportunity to do much for the business of the Alaskan Tourist Board. We'd like to hiss the full-of-himself developer who'd not mind turning the interior of the state into a parking lot, but we never do get to see enough of America's largest state to justify that judgment. But we sure get a feel for characters--for their survival skills, their idiosyncrasies, their hopes and dreams. If that's what you look forward to in your movies, you're in for a treat with this "Limbo."
Rated R. Running Time: 126 minutes. (C) 1999
Harvey Karten
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