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The Limey
TIFF [1999]
Full size Terence Stamp photo
Background info and poster art
ROBERT L 'S REVIEW
IMHO, if there's any filmmaker working today who has the potential to become the heir to Kubrick's recently-vacated throne, it's Atlanta-born Steven Soderbergh. Soderbergh arguably launched the modern "indie" movement with his 1989 Cannes winning drama Sex, Lies, And Videotape, and has forged an eclectic and increasingly mature and artistically experimental career as a director and sometimes screenwriter (and in a few instances, actor!). Kafka (1991), King Of The Hill (1993), The Underneath (1995), Schizopolis (1996), Gray's Anatomy (1996), and Out Of Sight (1998)--not a bad film in the batch.
The Limey just might be Soderbergh's best film yet. Building upon the flashback/flashforward/jumpcut technique he first attempted so masterfully in the brilliant (and largely unknown) The Underneath (a very liberal remake of Criss Cross), Soderbergh has delivered an uncompromising, darker than "noir" revenge thriller that is far more moving and complex than the generic term "revenge thriller" might at first suggest. In short, this is the movie Payback WANTED to be, before Brian Hegeland got the boot and Mel's ego softened it into Dirty Harry-lite.
While the cinematography shares some of the MTV aesthetic of Michael Mann and the pop culture riffing of Tarantino (especially in the use of classic rock tunes like The Who's "The Seeker" and Steppenwolf's "Magic Carpet Ride"), Lem ("Kafka") Dobbs' screenplay rises above mere "pose" and chic violence-for-violence's sake. "The Limey" has the lean and mean groove of the best of Westlake, the existential wail of vintage Ellroy, and the haunting sense of loss of Laura. And it's only 90 minutes long!
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The film also pulls off a neat trick, one that will no doubt leave some film purists outraged: by using short scenes from Ken Loach's 60s drama Poor Cow, Soderbergh incorporates newly-shot, but perfectly matched, footage of Jenny as a child into the flashback scenes of Stamp's "Wilson" as a younger man. Cinematic "sampling"? Not really--if anything, the clips render "The Limey" as "Poor Cow"s unofficial sequel.
Technique and subtext aside, what makes "The Limey" such a memorable experience is the presence of the criminally magnetic Terence Stamp. There's a whole generation who likely only know this versatile and unpredictable actor from genre entries like Superman 2, Alien Nation, or The Phantom Menace--or perhaps as the transsexual from Priscilla, Queen Of The Desert--but this film will hopefully recast Stamp as Connery's arch rival as the Coolest (near) Senior in movies today. Trim, athletic, confident, and better groomed than I am, I could believe THIS guy sleeping with Catherine-Zeta Jones.
Peter Fonda, too, shines as a borderline parody of his own persona. His Terry Valentine is a toothy, calculatingly amiable 60s idealist who never wields a weapon, but nevertheless embodies evil by his non-confrontational and cowardly approach to eliminating enemies.
"The Limey" opens in North America in late October '99. Don't miss it.
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Reviews: All the Rage
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