The Limey
|
List Price: Our Price: $4.10 You Save: $5.88 (59%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $0.60 (click here) Category: DVD See more DVD releases |
|---|
Canada
Movie Reviews of The Limey
Movie Review: Masterpiece
Summary: 5 Stars
Director Steven Soderbergh's 1999 so-called crime-action film, The Limey, is easily the best film of Soderbergh's that I've ever seen. Part of this is due to the innovative narrative structure that makes all but the most of the last few minutes of this great film a flashback, and the rest is due to an excellent script by screenwriter Lem Dobbs, whose other great success came a year earlier, in Alex Proyas's sci fi film Dark City. Both films, despite their seeming divergence, are acutely focused on human memory, and both deal with the fragility of such in novel ways. In fact, in rewatching The Limey on DVD, after six or seven years, and then watching it with the two available audio commentary tracks, I'm amazed to have seen something in the film that no other critic apparently has, and that is the fact that the viewer is never sure whether or not any or all of the remembered scenes depicted are, indeed, real (within the fictive cosmos the film resides in).
The 85 minute long film quickly sets up the idea that the protagonist, named simply Wilson (and seemingly the same character as that portrayed in Ken Loach's 1967 film Poor Cow (called either Dave, or Dave Wilson- I'm not sure for I've never seen that film, and there are conflicting accounts as to whether of not that character had both names revealed), and portrayed by Terence Stamp, is an ex-con out for revenge following the seeming accidental death of his daughter Jennifer (Melissa George- as an adult), a young woman who was living with a shady L.A.-based record mogul named Terry Valentine (Peter Fonda). Within the film's first ten minutes viewers get the first 'action' scene of violence, and already identify heavily with the lead character, Wilson. The bulk of the rest of the film is about Wilson's memories (or fantasies?) of his daughter, from the time he is on board a return flight from L.A to the U.K., and all the critics agree that the film is a series of memories, even if they disagree about what is the actual present time it displays. Some critics, as example, claim the airplane scenes represent flashforths, not flashbacks; some that seem to be chronological (although the scenes seem to be in proximate chronological groupings, not individually chronological), while others are not; but not a single critic seems to have ever questioned the verity of what Wilson's memories are, or, if indeed, they are strictly memories, and not fantasies. After all, this film is a 'revenge film,' and revenge is, next to sex, the top theme of fantasies. Of course, some would argue that the scenes from Poor Cow seem to imply Wilson is all that he claims to be. But we only get snippets of this. Is Wilson really an ex-con? Likely. Is he in L.A. looking for revenge? Likely. But after that, is anyone really sure what is memory and what is fantasy, and, indeed, if Wilson's 'memory' is accurate? The Limey is the rare example of that most overused and abused term, an utter cinematic masterpiece that explores memory as a thing in itself, as a way to communicate, as well as a form of regret. It asks serious queries of the human psyche- not just those of kind like what is good?, or what is evil?, but those of degree like what constitutes a crime?, and when does it become a crime?, as well as the aforementioned queries of whether the film, the vehicle for this philosophizing, is dream, memory, fantasy, and if Wilson ever really gets (or got) off that airplane? To return to the aforementioned film, Another Woman, that film ends with the explicit question: Is a memory something you have or something you've lost? The Limey shows better than any film I can think of, that the answer to that query can be neither or both.
Movie Review: hit him again
Summary: 5 Stars
The first, and more obvious, reason to consider this a conservative film is that the basic plot structure is built around the notion that if you plop a principled man--the limey and ex-con, Wilson (Terrence Stamp)--down in the midst of unprincipled men--drug-dealing Terry Valentine (Peter Fonda)
and his henchmen--it is the man of principle who is most dangerous because he will keep moving forward inexorably until his principles are
vindicated. Admittedly, the values that Wilson adheres to may not be right out of the classic Judeo-Christian playbook, but he does nonetheless have
a strict and uncompromising set of rules that govern his life, among which are the necessity to wreak vengeance on the men who killed his daughter.
Meanwhile, for Valentine and company, there are no behavioral standards, no morals to be followed; all is negotiable and nothing else matters but
your own survival. It is a sad commentary on the state of American culture that the filmmakers felt it necessary to make Wilson so overtly alien (not
just British, which we fawningly associate with higher standards in all things, but lower-class British so that his accent and vocabulary make him
even more of a fish out of water). When a DEA agent says to Wilson, "You're not from around here, are you?", he is presumably referring not just to
his national origin but also to how different he is from the laid-back Californians amongst whom he's now operating. Wilson's savage morality is
sadly just as foreign to us as is his Cockney slang.
The other aspect of the movie that makes it particularly conservative is the way in which Peter Fonda's character references the character he played in
Easy Rider (1969). Stamp is clearly supposed to be portraying an older version of the character he played in Poor Cow (1967), to the point where
director Soderbergh even uses film clips from that earlier role. But not many of us will ever have seen that film. Easy Rider, on the other hand, is a
touchstone of 60s culture and a key to understanding the era. Fonda and Dennis Hopper are counterculture antiheroes, riding around on their
motorcycles in search of America. Along the way they find drugs, hippies, mimes, Jack Nicholson, cops, etc. And in the famous ending of the film
America finally catches up to them, as a pickup full of rednecks shotguns Fonda and Hopper right off of their bikes. In many ways the finale drew a
line across the culture, and whether you rooted for the bikers or the truckers defined which side of the line you were on. As the 1968 election and
1972 re-election of the loathsome but "law-and-order" Richard Nixon demonstrated to the Left's chagrin, most of us were rooting for the guys with
shotguns.
Since Fonda's character presumably died at the end of Easy Rider, he's not explicitly playing the same character in The Limey. But it's easy to
imagine that this is what that biker (like so many of his generation) would have turned into--ammoral, self-absorbed, faux spiritual, cashing in on
both the music of the 60s (he's a record producer) and the drugs (gone is any pretense that they'll bring enlightenment; they're just easy money). As
Fonda preens around the screen with his fake tan, his over white teeth, and his vapid young girlfriend; moving between his ostentatious LA canyon
home and his Big Sur bungalow; mouthing inanities about the meaning of the 60s; any conservative who's worth his salt will be salivating at the
prospect of watching him get whacked again.
Movie Review: A hidden masterpiece
Summary: 5 Stars
After watching "The Limey" I was in awe of what I had beheld. This movie was dynamic and mute simultaneously. The genre of this film is a neo-noir, in other words a modern version of those crime/mysteries films made back in the golden days of cinema. These old school movies were black and white, "noir" is French for "black", hence the term film noir.
A thousand apologies for the deviation on my cinema history lesson, I will return to the review at hand. I have to say that I am on the fence with Steve Soderbergh's work. Some of his movies are great; I loved the remake of Solaris in 2002, "Out of Sight" and "Traffic". Consequently, I hated all of the "Ocean" films and "Full Frontal". So I wasn't sure what to except from "The Limey". In the end, I feel Soderbergh hit the nail on the head. The acting, editing, cinematography, acting and story were stellar.
The plot is simplistic; Terence Stamp plays a British ex-con who has traveled to Los Angeles to "investigate" the murder of his estranged daughter Jenny. In the process, he hooks up with some of his daughter's friends (played well by Lesley Ann Warren and Luis Guzman) in order to solve the conundrum of his Jenny's death in a very conspiratorial fashion. Jenny was involved with a ritzy music producer (played smoothly by Peter Fonda), who appears to have his hand in her death.
What I thought was sort of neat about this film is the use of flashbacks. The movie "Poor Cow" was used in order to provide flashback's to Terence Stamp's character. "Poor Cow" featured Stamp at a much younger age and worked well with "The Limey". I don't think I have ever seen this technique used in a movie before. As for the editing, I found it amazing. It might annoy some viewers; it is somewhat non-liner in fashion. The editing sort of displaces some scenes in the continuity of the film and/or foreshadows events. There is also a distressed emphasis of dialogue with the editing. Characters will be in one setting and then switch to another, while the dialogue is still going. There might even be a scene where the dialogue is going and none of the characters are speaking. It reminded me somewhat of the movie "Memento".
I have heard some criticism of Terence Stamp's character in this movie. That he displayed neither emotion nor it didn't seem plausible that he would be that intense about finding who did or didn't kill his daughter. Also it seemed odd that Jenny's friends would aid her father that Jenny herself was never totally copasetic with. I believe the retort to that theory is that both Jenny's friends and father are aiding one and other out of restitution for their lack of involvement in what happened to Jenny. Perhaps, from their perception, they could have done more to prevent Jenny's ominous outcome. As for the end of the movie, I had to sit and really think about it. Perhaps I am being a bit too quixotic, but once I processed and digested this film, I felt very gratified with the conclusion.
I suppose I can understand why someone might not like this movie. It isn't a shoot out revenge film and there isn't non-stop action in it. Nevertheless if one is able to get submerged in the story, they might find that this 90 minute or so movie goes by quickly. I also found the soundtrack amazing and I ordered it as soon as the movie ended. The score was done by Cliff Martinez, who has scored many of Soderbergh's films, including the hypnotic score to Solaris (2002).
My only regret about "The Limey" is that I hadn't seen it sooner.
Movie Review: Stunning, Superstar-Quality Performance by Terence Stamp
Summary: 5 Stars
Terence Stamp is not a superstar, but you would not be able to tell that from this film. From the moment before the opening credits with a completely black screen we hear his character Wilson utter passionately, "Tell me! Tell me about Jenny!" until the moment late in the film when he repeats those words, Stamp completely and utterly dominates this film. The fact is, however, that Stamp could easily, with only a few changes in his early career, have been as big a superstar as anyone to come out of England in the past forty years. His early selectivity in roles in the sixties, when he was one of the icons of the decade, was legendary, as was his having taken off nearly a decade to go to India to study spirituality. As the opening credits come up, The Who's "The Seeker" plays, and the song could be applied as much to Stamp as to the role Stamp is playing. (Stamp's brother, by the way, Chris Stamp, was the executive producer of many of The Who's best albums in the 1960s and early 1970s.)The plot of the film is extremely simple: a British con is released from prison, and travels immediately to Los Angeles to investigates his daughter's Jenny's death. In most regards, this is a fairly average film, but two things make is a minor masterpiece. First, this is one of the most brilliantly edited films one can ever hope to see. It is a travesty that Sarah Flack not only didn't win an Oscar for best editing but didn't even receive a nomination. This is one of those films where the editing tells a disproportionate amount of the story. Not only that, but a five second straight on shot might feature two or three splices, giving the film a nervy, disorienting feel at times, to wonderful effect.
The second reason the film is elevated to something special is Stamp's portrayal of Wilson. Stamp's voice has gotten progressively rawer over the years, and he really doesn't sound like anyone else in movies today, especially when he reverts to a Cockney accent, as he does in this one. He radiates danger, more like the Angel of Death than a person. I have read that Soderbergh contacted Stamp before seriously beginning work on the project, not wanting to go forward with the film until Stamp's involvement was guaranteed. In other words, this film was built around Stamp, and it shows. He owns this film like few actors can own a movie. That Stamp did not receive an Oscar nomination is another absurdity.
One of the more interesting features in the film is the way that Wilson's memories of his daughter and his sense of failure as a father to her drives and motivates his behavior, sometimes in surprising and unexpected ways. One thing that helps make this more effect is the frequently noted use of footage from a film that Stamp made in the 1960s, POOR COW. Interestingly, POOR COW is the only other film that Stamp, an East Ender from London, has played a Cockney. Terence Stamp is not a superstar, but this film is dramatic proof that he coulda, shoulda been, if he had wanted to be one.
Movie Review: My name's . . . Wilson
Summary: 5 Stars
This is one of the finest crime dramas of recent years. Harkening back to another great film, 1971's Get Carter, Terrance Stamp plays an ex-con, Wilson, who has comes to America to discover the causes of his daughter's death. I found this a great film for many reasons:
Steven Soderbergh's direction was fascinating. He plays with time and images in a very interesting way, mixing up sharp close ups and long shots done out of time (some in flashback, some looking into the future). While this smacks hard of arty/indi filmmaking, I think with this film it really worked to tremendous advantage. There are several shots of Terrance Stamp in extreme close-up, focusing on his strange, pale blue eyes, while sun and shadow play across his face. I found these shots oddly moving, and after a second viewing I figured out why: in these shots the sunlight passes over his face like the rising and falling of the sun - like the passing of time. Soderbergh's direction is very tight throughout, and his shot selection is always excellent.
I love the casting of this movie. Terrance Stamp could not have been better, cast as Wilson, the cockney career criminal that has come to the plastic world of California looking for some very hard answers. His Wilson is a once-in-a-career creation, much like Clint Eastwood's, William Munny from The Unforgiven. Stamp really makes Wilson jump right off the screen in every scene he is in. Several good to great actors find their finest moments on film here, always playing against type. For once Lesley Ann Warren is NOT a bubble-headed sex starved vixen, but instead a woman with depth and intelligence. For once Luiz Guzman is NOT a slightly comic, second banana bad-guy Hispanic but instead a decent, complex man that proves his metal during the course of the film.
Peter Fonda plays a music mogul named Valentine with a heart of corruption beyond his melancholy reminisces of the 60's (who, in an offhand moment, explains the 60's perfectly in about 5 or 6 lines of dialogue). Barry Newman seems to come out of nowhere with a pitch perfect performance as a suave head of security for the Valentine empire.
Finally, watch for the two-man hit team of Nicky Katt and Joe Dallesandro, who are hired to kill Stamp. Nicky Katt gives a real, real creepy performance, nearly worth the price of admission by itself, and it was just great to see Dallesandro mixing it up again (Dallesandro comes out of the Andy Warhol factory and was Warhol's beefcake boy in several of his movies).
All in all, a film that will easily stand up to repeat viewings.
This is one you should have in your collection.