Limbo

Barry Shrapnel

Directed by: John Sayles Written by: John Sayles Starring: Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio David Strathairn VanessaMartinez

One of the major issues I had with this film was the ending. When the screen went blank, my first reaction was that my DVD was faulty. Then the credits came up and I realized the movie was over. I felt ripped off until I saw the movie again.

I now believe (even though I would have preferred a traditional ending) that the way the movie concluded fitted in with the major themes of the movie: limbo, forced intimacy, and risk.

Limbo is defined as the dwelling place of lost souls, or as a place where a person is in an uncertain condition. When the film starts, the three main characters (Joe, the mother, and the daughter) are like lost souls because they are in an uncertain condition. Joe feels responsible for the death of his fishing mates, and is laid back and defensive. The mother is jumping from one unsatisfactory relationship to another, and in the beginning of the film breaks up with her boyfriend. That places her between relationships and in a sort of limbo state. The daughter is in a limbo state as we see her isolated and alone. (Especially in the shot of her in the school corridor where she is obviously separate from the other students.) The characters remain in this state of limbo until they are forced to commit to each other much earlier than they would have done under normal circumstances. This happens because, due to the circumstances of the plot, they are placed in a life-threatening situation.

The theme of forced intimacy begins when the characters are in the boat. The director filmed the scenes inside a real boat to give the viewer a cramped feeling and thus achieve the feeling of forced intimacy.

Then when the three characters escape to the island, because of the forced intimacy, they get to know each other very well and eventually come together as a family.

The theme of risk ties in with the theme of intimacy. In the end of the film, because the three characters have become a family, they realize that, in order to survive, they will have to take the risk of standing on the shore and waiting for whomever is in the plane. And it is a risk because the plane could be carrying rescuers or hit-men.

I think the behavior of the three characters is unrealistic here. In an actual situation people would not just walk out on to the beach like sheep to possibly get shot. The three would stay back and hide in order to determine if it was safe. Then they would decide what to do. The introduction of the characters seemed too quick. For example, Joe's brother suddenly appears, and my initial reaction was "Who is this? He must be important." That was somewhat distracting.

LIMBO was a character-driven movie because by the end of the film you know the characters well.

I appreciated the film's realism. Examples are: the interior of the boat being shot inside an actual boat; and Joe going barefoot, and saying he would watch where he would step, (I have seen many films where the character goes barefoot and isn't even careful about where he/she steps). Also, on the boat you hear the gunshots the same way as the three characters inside. This is actually more scary than seeing the bad guys board the boat, kill Joe's brother, etc. Because you hear what is going on from the three characters' point of view, you become more involved. Many in the audience, when they see an action movie shoot-em up scenario can be emotionally distant from it because they are so used to that type of action presentation.

The emotional climax of the film is the scene where the three main characters come together completely. In this scene, the mother tells the daughter she would never leave her and then, a few minutes later, we see the mother cuddling the daughter.

I felt the movie was a bit slow in the last half. However, this did not bother me as that part of the film showed the girl reading the diary. This was a good technique to bring out the girl's problems. When we find out the girl is making it up, we realize it is an emotional outlet for her and a way for her to have a go at her mother. Then we see the girl reading the diary towards the end of the film and we realize that the mother knows the girl is making it up and we react to it differently than we did when we thought it wasn't made up.

Overall, a film worth seeing, just don't let the ending throw you.