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The Limey by Stephen Farber As budgets soared over the last decade and film financiers increasingly sought vehicles that would draw the broadest possible audiences, it's no surprise we ended up with movies like Godzilla and Message in a Bottle. Now, though, filmmakers finally seem to be rebelling more vociferously against the prevailing formulaic structure and blandness imposed by studio fiat. One intriguing sign of insurrection is apparent in the wave of cinematic nostalgia for the '60s--not just for that era's spirit of social change, but for the bold experimentation so prevalent in its movies. Steven Soderbergh's The Limey, for example, is a wholehearted homage to such movies of the '60s as Point Blank and Petulia (with a nod to Sergio Leone's spaghetti Westerns as well). Instead of the plodding, straight-ahead storytelling preferred today, Soderbergh adopts a more intricate, non-linear style that was almost de rigueur in hip '60s movies. Working from a script by Lem Dobbs, he fractures time with a complicated mosaic of flashbacks and flash-forwards while telling the story of a British ex-con named Wilson (Terence Stamp) who comes to Los Angeles to find out how his daughter died and take revenge on the men who killed her. John Boorman's 1967 thriller, Point Blank, seems to have been the primary inspiration for The Limey. Images of the implacable Wilson striding through sterile California landscapes deliberately evoke Boorman's film, and so do the time-bending cuts. Boorman's tricky editing style has been appropriated before, and on occasion it has seemed like an irritating affectation. But it serves a purpose in The Limey, which is the tale of a man obsessed with the past and trying to make reparations for his own mistakes, and it's visually scintillating. PAGE 1 | 2 |
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Soderbergh's film also benefits from excellent performances from a group of quintessential '60s and '70s actors. The supporting cast includes Lesley Ann Warren, Barry Newman, Joe Dallesandro and Peter Fonda, the easy rider himself, who has fun playing a sleazy, corrupt music producer. But it's Terence Stamp who carries the movie. Flashbacks of Wilson in his youth are actually scenes from one of Stamp's movies of the '60s, Poor Cow, and they remind us how devastatingly handsome he was as a younger man. Thirty years later he's still a commanding presence; he exudes strength and menace beneath his stoical exterior, and he quickly has us rooting for this lone gunman battling the power elite. The Limey is a stylish, hard-edged melodrama, and it's a wonderful showcase for Stamp, one of the sexy icons of the '60s who's overdue for a rediscovery more serious than the one prompted by Priscilla, Queen of the Desert. PAGE 1 | 2 |