Customer Reviews

The Limey

5 star:		(59)
4 star:		(46)
3 star:		(11)
2 star:		(10)
1 star:		(10)

 

 

I debated over whether or not to give this movie four or five stars-- it seems to me that 5 stars is an overused rating, but I so enjoyed it that in the end I couldn't give it anything but. Now, I must warn that this movie is not for everyone. If non-linear stories confuse you, just forget it, you'll hate "The Limey." It's totally out of order, and the plot is simplistic anyway. But this movie isn't so much telling you a story as it is telling you about the characters. Which is why I would recommend it if you, like me, enjoy character studies. "The Limey" is *not* an action film, it's a character study of a career criminal who will soon be too old to keep up with his lifestyle. And my God, the performances, particularly by Terence Stamp and Peter Fonda are absolutely incredible. Of course, the movie rests on Stamp's performance, being the focus of the film, and he delivers in spades. But not to be overlooked is Fonda, who as something of a doppleganger to Stamp's character, Wilson, is every bit Stamp's equal. Steven Soderbergh's direction is unsurprisingly excellent. Altogether another great movie of 1999.

Steven Soderbergh's follow up to his wonderful 1998 film "Out of Sight" is more understated and subtle than most people might imagine. The Limey is in many respects the closest Hollywood has come in years to filming a modern film noir picture.

The main plot of the Limey is of little to no importance. Terence Stamp plays a bitter old Englishmen who comes to LA to seek revenge for his murdered daughter. His pursuit of vengeance eventually leads him to a sleazy record producer, brilliantly played by Peter Fonda.

The Limey is a film that revolves around its use of atmosphere. Soderbergh, forever a film geek, uses cuts in time and flashbacks (a constant one to Stamp on a plane) to establish a dark gritty atmosphere which he manages to sustain throughout the whole film. The scripting is a perfect fabrication of a film noir, every character is menacingly constructed to be a worn out tough guy.

If anything negative can be said about the film is that it seems to go on a little long. In actuality the film is perfect length but the many scenes without dialogue make it seem longer than it is. Time and time again does Soderbergh cut to shots of Stamp staring into thin air reflecting. It establishes atmosphere wonderfully but if you are looking for a wild ride of an action movie the Limey is not your cup of tea.

The Limey is a movie that would be adored by serious film fans but despised by the kind of people who go to the theatre just to watch a fun popcorn movie.If you got this far and you're reading this review then you probably love films.

The Limey is, quite simply, one of the best movies of last year and possibly one of the best of the revenge noir genre. Terence Stamp and Peter Fonda are mighty gods throwing lightning bolts of nostalgia and regret in a maelstrom of non-linear editing so severe it'll make your eyes water with joy. Movies like this exist to restore your faith in the cinematic process as a whole. The Limey is a big slice of cheesecake to wash down the horrible choking slime of movies like "Payback"

Also worth acquiring due to the commentaries, the first being a prolonged, amusing and mixed up argument between soderbergh (god) and lem dobbs (satan) and the second being everyone else.

It is quite simply a masterpiece. To ignore it is to turn your back on manna from heaven.

Wilson (Terence Stamp) is an aging, but still surprisingly capable, British criminal just released from prison. He travels from the UK to LA and begins looking into his daughter's recent death with a gut feeling that Jenny's car wreck was not an accident. There Wilson meets Jenny's closest friends and asks them all about her life in LA. He soon targets Valentine (Peter Fonda), Jenny's lover, as the obvious culprit.

That's the surface of the film, but there is another layer here that turned standard thriller material into sublime art house fare. "The Limey" is very much a visual, cerebral film that moves in spirals and wanders through a labyrinth of moods and lyrical images. The film is finally all about memories, and its climax is an epiphany of memory and of the strange patterns that we fall into in our lives.

"The Limey" takes a circuitous approach to the phenomenon of women falling for men like their fathers and bringing their father-daughter baggage along with them. What trouble these relationships are the specific emotional patterns and games people play, which are worked out in great detail between child and parent very early in life. So what happens when you bring all that to a relationship with a new person who doesn't know the rules of your game, doesn't know when you're bluffing or when you're making a serious threat? Well, in a worst case scenario you might just end up dead.

And how does it feel, as a parent, to recognize your own handiwork in your child's homespun catastrophe? "The Limey" answers that question with the force of Greek tragedy, and the answer rings true. The film is a rare cinematic accomplishment, achieving both an honest emotional foundation for Wilson's dark epiphany and a web of rich, resonant images that anchor the entire experience in a vivid, dazzling tapestry.

I will not pretend this is not my favorite American film ever, it is. I first saw this in the initial theatrical release in 1999. This is the film that made me change my major from marketing to film, and change my goals in business, and life. Now that's an impact on at least one viewer. :-) This is also the film, that I believe pushed Director Steven Soderbergh over the cusp of greatness. Already with an impressive body of work in "Sex, Lies, and Videotape", "Gray's Anatomy", and the outstanding thriller "Out of Sight", here the director applies the sum of his education, and gives you the the single most innovative revenge/crime thriller in American film.

I will touch on the plot briefly as far better writers than I already have well covered it dozens of times over. Terrance Stamp portrays career con Wilson, a cockney Brit who travels to L.A. upon his release to get answers concerning the suspicious "accidental" death of his estranged daughter. Upon arriving he makes contact with his daughters friend Eduardo, wonderfully portrayed by the usually underutilized Luis Guzman, and, voice/acting coach played by Lesley Ann Warren. After cutting through some henchman types who had recently come in contact with Wilson's child, his path of revenge leads to aging 60's icon, record producer Terry Valentine. Valentine is portrayed by the legendary Peter Fonda, who is at his most animated, and sleazy best as the cowardly Valentine.

Everybody in this film is absolutly terrific which is typical of a Soderbergh cast who seems to just bring the best out of a cast like nobody else. One cast member who gets no notice in any of the reviews I have seen is Melissa George who in haunting flashbacks, and Wilson's imagination portrays his daughter Jenny. I cannot give this young lady enough credit for giving such a revealing face to a character only seen in memory, with no voice, with no dialouge. She is beautiful, meloncholy, and unforgettable and manages without ever speaking to give somekind of voice to the voiceless along with another young actress named Michela Gallo who does duties as the young child of Wilson's memories.

The direction of Sodergergh, and most importantly his cutting of the film alongside editor Sarah Flack is imaginitive, and daring. The cut is as chaotic as the memories of a faded conman, who time passed by so long ago would be, yet the direction of this cut is nothing short of masterful. Much like the era the antagonist/protagonist saw thier heyday in, Soderbergh weaves the surreal, with the very real, advances the story, and studies his "hero" in ways that I had never imagined before seeing "The Limey". This film could not have been made without Stamp, and Soderbergh has said as much before. The icon easily outperformed any and every actor in 1999, and got nothing in the way of nominations for this achievement, which I still think a travesty. This is a film with excellent dialouge, but never relies on dialouge to explain, or advance, or develop. The breadth of Wilson's development in our eyes is done for just that, our eyes. Stamp's face, his eyes, his mouth, his body language tell us all we ever need to know. It seems that everybody looks at this as a crime thriller, but really this is human drama, and character study at it's finest.

I've followed Soderbergh for many years, and this was a really fun step in his progession to the director who will soon be tackling Che Guavera in an epic that I had onced hoped to make. But I won't hold it against him :-)

If you want a great work, that you will watch again, and again....go to the top of the page and order this gem.

Terrence Stamp has had an interesting career, with smaller roles in big films like "Superman", "Bowfinger", and Star Wars: Episode I- The Phantom Menace"; as well as larger roles in small films, like "The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert" and Steven Soderbergh's latest film, "The Limey". Actually, "The Limey" is somewhat of a spin-off from one of Stamp's earlier films--"Poor Cow", a British 1967 film directed by Kenneth Loach. In "The Limey", it takes the minor character which Stamp played in "Poor Cow"--a thief with a wife and daughter who gets sent to jail--and sets the story as he gets out.
It opens with a black screen, with a single voiceover of Stamp interrogating someone: "Tell me about Jenny. Tell me about Jenny!" Jenny, as it turns out, is his daughter, and has died in a rather suspicious manner. What follows would otherwise be a bland story of a father's vengeance; however, thanks to Soderbergh's precise and inventive direction, [and Stamp's acting,] it turns out to be a taut and intriguing thriller. Peter Fonda is an excellent counterpart to Stamp, as the slimy, over-the-hill record producer who is suspected of being a part of narcotics ring and of killing Stamp's daughter.
Soderbergh is known to fool around with the linear timeline a bit, as he did in the critically acclaimed "Out of Sight". (OK, nearly all of Soderbergh's movies are critically acclaimed.) However, one interesting effect that Soderbergh uses in "The Limey" is, at first, we witness a conversation. In the middle of the conversation, while the conversation continues, we watch a different point of the conversation, and then a freeze frame of the listener's face. It's a very effective means of emphasizing the emotion of the two involved in the conversation, while keeping the story moving. This effect takes some time to get used to, but once you adjust, you enjoy the ride. Soderbergh also uses fantasy scenes, to emphasize Stamp's emotions, which allows the viewer to empathize with Stamp's character. This is essential, because one needs to make a fundamental connection with the protagonist in order to like a story of an ex-con ready to brutalize someone.
Soderbergh's direction and Stamp's acting make a fine duo. "The Limey" picks up in Soderbergh's masterful direction skills where "Out of Sight" left off. Definitely worth a watch. Four stars.

The Limey is probably Soderberghs best work, it bests Traffic and Erin Brockovich easily, only Out of Sight and Sex, Lies, and Videotape are close. The Limey is one of the only movies I've seen where the stylistic chances the movie takes make the movie not just some self-indulgent art piece to be debated in film classes, but a poignant film that resonates and stays with you. Terence Stamp plays the main character Wilson as a tough sad English criminal that is trying to find out what happened to his daughter. His quest has genre underpinnings, but this movie rises above any genre label. A lot of credit has to go to Lem Dobbs script which sidesteps cliche and injects some worthwhile comedy into the mix. But the editing style of this movie is why I love it, it works in waves like memorys, its the only movie I've seen that accurately shows how your mind can shift from one thing to another. Right about now, I'm sounding like some chin-stroking art student hopped up on his own self-importance. But watch the movie and you'll see what I mean. The best part of this movie is that it is sad, the ending isn't a huge twist or some copout, its just profoundly sad, and there aren't many movies that evoke that feeling in me today. I'm done.

My favorite film of 1999. The Limey would be a very straightforward tale were it not for the usual inventiveness of Steven Soderbergh and the searing intensity of Terrence Stamp.

Peter Fonda parodies his image quite effectively, and Luis Guzman (one of Soderbergh's house players) excels in his small role. But the movie is all about Stamp. I read an interview with Soderbergh in which he said that he didn't need special effects because he had the best special effect ever invented: "Terrence Stamp's eyes." A great line, and 100% dead-on correct. On the larger screen, Stamp's eyes almost burn a hole through you.

'Bowfinger' came out around the same time as 'The Limey,' and it features Stamp as the leader of a Scientology-like cult called 'Mindhead' (which Steve Martin's character humorously refers to in the film as 'Mindfffff...head'). Put these two roles together - along with his classic portrayal of a transsexual in 'Priscilla, Queen of the Desert' - and what emerges is the picture of an actor with amazing range. To paraphrase Zod (Stamp in 'Superman 2'): "Is there no one on this earth to even challenge him?"

As much as I like Steven Soderbergh, most of his movies have some sort of flaw that keeps them from being true classics, but not The Limey. It is perfection. I wasn't very familiar with Terrance Stamp before, but now I am a believer (I want to see Poor Cow especially, but it is tough to find in the States). Peter Fonda does an ironic take on his Easy Rider hippie image. Imagine if Captain America had lived, sold out, and enjoyed bursting young peoples bubbles about the sixties ("it was only 66 and early 67"), and you have Terry Valentine. The other actors were convincing, making the most of small roles, especially Barry Newman as Avery, Valentine's mean spirited bodyguard. The aethetic aspects of The Limey are also very impressive. The editing is great and the cinematography is totally unique. Terrific soundtrack, too. One of the best movies of the year, and the best revenge movie since the days of Point Blank and Get Carter.

I had read mixed reviews of The Limey and could not figure out the reason. Once I viewed the film on DVD it became clear exactly why some were put off by this simple tale of revenge. From the beginning the plot and the visuals are very jumpy and non-linear. As the film progresses, everything become linear and very clear. This device is used to express the confusion and blind rage of a father which transforms into sadness with a feeling of closure. As usual Soderbergh creates a visually dazzling film with rock-solid actors. One can see a progression from "The Underneath" to "Out of Sight" to "The Limey". The genre of film noir in broad daylight seems to be uniquely his. I recommend this to the art-house crowd more than I would people looking for a straight actioneer.