The Limey

The `revenge story' is a pretty overdone plot device, so when a film comes along that employs this theme and still remains fresh and compelling, it is safe to say that is a truly good film. Steven Soderbergh's `The Limey' is able to do just that. In `The Limey', Terrence Stamp plays Wilson, a career criminal who, upon being released from prison in England, finds out that his estranged daughter has died (or perhaps been murdered) in Los Angeles. Wilson's mission is to find out what happened to her, and prescribe his own brand of justice on the man behind her death.

Soderbergh's direction in `The Limey' is superb. While I enjoy and admire most of his filmography, I was so enamored with his second film, the barely-seen, highly acclaimed `Kafka' for its originality, its daring style and intellectual feel, that films like `Oceans Eleven' and `Erin Brockovich', while quite good, didn't reflect what I felt was to be his true maverick style. Seeing `The Limey', made before `Erin Brockovich' and shortly a couple of years after `Kafka', I was happy to see that he kind of held on to that spirit (for lack of a better expression) for one more film before producing more commercial fare. `The Limey' is told in a very non-linear style, and not even as clearly delineated as say, `Pulp Fiction' was; rather it is flashbacks and real-time events expressed by fluttering scenes and an almost wispy presentation. Soderbergh also employs scenes from one of Terrence Stamp's films from the 1960's for some flashbacks, a thoroughly brilliant and creative tactic.

Terrence Stamp certainly deserves mention for his performance as Wilson. Whether seeing him as General Zod in `Superman II' or as the drag queen Bernadette in `The Adventures of Priscilla Queen of the Desert' he is a true badass. Watching him chase after Peter Fonda in `The Limey' was like watching a reincarnation of Yul Brunner in `Westworld'; he just never let up. Anyone who would get in his way were pretty much toast, but it was all so coldly done that it was almost clinical – just by the hard and distant expression on Wilson's face you know that all of these people were incidental and he wouldn't receive any pleasure until he comes face to face with his nemesis; and even then, it's possibly more of a duty than a pleasure.

Check out this film – you won't regret it. However, if you're expecting a film with the same kind of commercial tone as say, `Oceans Eleven' you may be in for a surprise, albeit, in this viewer's opinion, a pleasant one.

--Shelly

Wilson (Terence Stamp) gets out of prison and goes to L.A. Eduardo Roel (Luis Guzmán) had sent him news that his daughter Jenny Wilson (Melissa George) is dead. His is convinced that her music producer boyfriend Terry Valentine (Peter Fonda) is responsible. Valentine was involved in a drug deal which he is now trying to hide and presently has a young girlfriend Adhara (Amelia Heinle). Elaine (Lesley Ann Warren) was once a famous actress and a mentor to Jenny. Valentine's right hand man Jim Avery (Barry Newman) hires Stacy (Nicky Katt) to kill Wilson.

Soderbergh is trying his disjointed editing style and a bit of shaky camera work. The style is really fascinating for awhile but it becomes more of a gimmick later on. It overwhelms anything happening in the story and takes away some of the tension. Even the dialog becomes secondary. I really like the use of the old movie but even that has diminishing returns. He's done this in the past like in 'Out of Sight' but it wasn't quite as pervasive. Terence Stamp has terrific menace. He's able to maintain the tension and there is a nice payoff at the end.

When I see Londoners portrayed in Hollywood I almost want to apologise . Being a Londoner myself I cringe when characters speak to Americans in the local London dialect . It's wouldn't happen and we don't all speak like that anyway!

Terrance Stamp plays one of those extremely volatile and dangerous Cockneys who goes to Los Angeles to find the man he considers responsible for for his daughter's death .

Despite the over exaggerating accent I really liked this . Stamp's character is certainly unhinged and you definitely feel he has nothing to lose . He's out for revenge and nothing is going to stop him

I love the way we see flashbacks to when he was a young man . The flashbacks are taken from Ken Loach's first ever film - Poor Cow and because it's actually stamp as a man in his twenties, it's about as genuine as you are ever going to get .

This is one of Steven Soderbergh's lesser known films and while it's not perfect , it certainly doesn't look out of place with his back catalogue.

The very stylish and simple "The Limey" has me quite baffled. After digesting this movie for a while, I am still not quite sure what to make of it and more importantly, what exactly is it about. On the surface "The Limey" seems like a straightforward geriatric "Deathwish" with its theme of revenge. Go deeper and it is more a character study of a man who has devoted his entire being to a "life of crime" and dealing with a culture that he is not entirely familiar with. Look sideways and it deals with hard core men who are over-the-hill attempting to hang on to their lost youth and vitality by being tough (even though their bodies can't quite cut it anymore), wearing expensive designer suits with tinted glasses and having very young beautiful women by their side. Whatever the case may be director Steven Soderbergh, of the very sexy and stylish but much more superior "Out of Sight" with George Clooney and Jennifer Lopez, knows who to handle the crime drama/thriller with panache and style like no one else.

Dave Wilson (the very good Terrence Stamp), a smart, intense criminal just released from prison heads to LA from London to look into the somewhat mysterious death of his daughter, who he barely knew. He believes she died at the hands of her boyfriend, legendary and majorly rich record producer Terry Valentine (Peter Fonda) and will not stop until he tracks him down for answers.

The plot here of avenging father seems pretty much lame and not that interesting or complicated at all, but maybe that is the point, not everything in life is extraordinary, in fact much of life is standard, simple and uneventful. But the plot does not so much drive this movie as do the characters. In a world of 16-year-old superstar models, actors and singers, it is totally refreshing to see a movie where the majority of characters are over 40, many over the sixty mark. Even the hitmen of this movie are past their prime. These criminal characters are not your typical stock characters of most crime films, some are regular Joes who happen to have chosen crime as their career aspirations and deal with the same problems as the typical 9 to 5 office worker. As the one hitman hired by Valentine's head security Avery (Barry Newman) says, "I embrace my lifestyle".

While the acting is top notch, especially Stamp, Fonda and Newman, the real star of the film is director, Soderbergh and especially cinematographer Ed Lachman. Soderbergh cuts so many different scenes back and forth with a flair that I have not experienced yet as with a character speaking in one scene and finishing the sentence in another. His use of flashbacks of a young Terrence Stamp incorporating Stamp's 1967 film, "Poor Cow", are not only genius but a great homage to the actor. Also when we first meet the Fonda character, the background music has lyrics that include "easy rider is a curse". Just great. He also seems to get amazing performances from his actors as he did with Clooney and Lopez in last years "Out of Sight". Fonda still riding high from 1997's "Ulee's Gold" does well with the character of Valentine, showing a very vulnerable, insecure and weak man who hides behind wealth and power. Stamp delivers an intense and powerful, yet totally focused, subtle and real performance that is very rare in this film genre. It is a memorable performance and character. Cinematographer, Lachman, does an amazing job with shots that are standard fare, but gives them a different angel that make them stand out such as a scene where Wilson tosses one of Valentine's body guards over a balcony into the canyon below. Your typical cinematographer would have focused on this. Instead Lachman has this scene in the far background while the main shot is of Valentine having a good time at his party feeling totally safe and relaxed in his multi-million dollar home.

So the bottom-line, is "The Limey" a great film, I don't think so. Did I love it, not really. Was I bored with it, no quite. I guess it captured my interest in a different and quiet way that most films don't and for that I recommend it. Also when was the last time you saw 70's semi-icons, Barry Newman (TV's 1974 Petrocelli), Leslie Ann Warren and once hunky Andy Warhol mainstay, Joe Dallesandro. Recommended.

In style, Steve Soderbergh's "The Limey" harks back to the days of freeform French, Italian and British filmmaking of the 1960's, utilizing many of the techniques that at the time were groundbreaking and innovative: the fragmentation of the time sequence, heavy reliance on jarring jumpcuts, the employment of near-subliminal quick cuts to indicate memory and anticipatory imaginings and a pronounced use of the handheld camera to generate a sense of pseudo-documentary realism. This throwback in style is more than appropriate because Soderbergh's film is drenched in a '60's sensibility, from the use of many of the stars of the period in both major and minor roles to the actual employment of scenes from 1967's "Poor Cow" to function as memories for the main character played by the star of both films, Terrance Stamp.

All the above elements make "The Limey" a quite unusual and, perhaps, even unique film of sorts. But I am afraid that this over reliance on technique does come with a price: the film, as a whole, becomes much more of an "exercise" than a fully engaging narrative, partly because the visual distractions keep distancing the audience from the story and characters that should be our focus. Stamp is brilliant as the British ex-con bent on avenging the death of his daughter in the alien world of Los Angeles - and, perhaps, the sense of dislocation caused by the obtrusive cinematic stylings is meant to reflect the similar state of Wilson's mind. That still doesn't excuse the surprising banality of much of the dialogue and the less-than-stellar performances from an otherwise noteworthy cast. Peter Fonda and Barry Newman both miss the mark in their roles as a successful record producer and his loyal bodyguard. Neither their performances nor their dialogue ring true.

"The Limey" seems to have more on its mind than just being a conventional crime revenge melodrama. Yet, do we really know much more about Wilson at the end of the film than at the beginning? Maybe it just becomes difficult to be greatly moved by a film that wants to be an elegy for a character we are given no real reason to admire. Thus, despite Stamp's marvelous performance and the impressive style of much of the film, "The Limey" doesn't add up to much in the long run.