The Limey – Steven Soderbergh seems to have the natural ability to create a compelling visual style utilizing unoriginal but interesting stories. This talent first manifested itself in Out of Sight and is possibly improved upon in The Limey. What works here is the blatant distraction through quasi non-linear story editing and a brilliantly framed character study through the filtered lens.
Wilson (Terence Stamp) comes to LA to enact revenge on those whom he believes is responsible for his daughter’s death. Though he’s been absent as a father, he quickly reinvests himself in the remains of Jenny’s life, meeting some of her old friends (Luis Guzman, Lesley Ann Warren) and hunting down Jenny’s boyfriend (Peter Fonda). The culmination of his revenge is as satisfying as it is unexpected.
The story is not overly strong, but Stamp plays Wilson with a vocal presence not often seen onscreen, and that lends strength to the picture overall. Peter Fonda is better as a man-gone-wrong, trying in his way to atone for past wrongs, but in all the wrong ways. The real winner here is Soderbergh’s direction, which is cool, precise, measured, and deliberate. We’re given the past and present in calculated bursts, the two intersecting nicely with each other so that the entire story plays like a cycle, a ring that, like Wilson’s life, has no real past and no real future. There is just the now in which he lives.
Soderbergh knows how to present people. He characterizes through camera space, echoing the distance and loneliness of Wilson through angularized shots, off-kilter framing, and skewed movement, often keeping him just in the shot, a subtle method for telling backstory. Fonda is a forlorn character, and he appears as an instep, a closed figure in an open frame. Both characters are marginalized by the camera, reflecting their inner struggles and their outward alienation. A brilliant camera study, The Limey excels in presentation. Had the story been more original, it would have gotten five stars.
Fringe Rating: out of 5