Northern Exposure might have given 1990s television viewers an impression that Alaska was charming and “cool” place to live. Writer and director John Sayles thinks otherwise, at least judging by his 1999 drama Limbo. Plot is set in Port Henry, small Alaska fishing town which is going through rough times due to collapse of local fishing industry. Protagonist is Joe Gustineau (played by David Strathairn), one of the people affected by it. He used to be a fisherman and now must make ends meet doing all kinds of odd jobs. At one wedding he meets Donna DeAngelo (played by Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio), lounge singer who is going through hard times both in her professional and private life. Joe and Donna ultimately end in bed, much to the displeasure of Donna’s teen daughter Noelle (played by Vanessa Martinez) who is tired of her mother having relationship with losers. To make things even worse, Vanessa, an emotionally unstable girl with literary talent, had a crush on Joe. After a while Joe is asked by his half-brother Bobby (played by Casey Siemaszko) to crew his boat, which Joe uses as an opportunity to take Donna and Noelle for a trip. It soon becomes apparent that Bobby got involved with drug smugglers who kill him. Joe, Donna and Noelle are forced to seek safety by swimming to a nearby island. There they soon find face the lack of food, water and warm clothes which makes their survival increasingly unlikely.
Sayles has built his reputation on relatively low budget films that worked as ensemble pieces with emphasis on socioeconomic issues. First part of Limbo looks very much like the film you might have expected from Sayles. We are introduced to small town and through large number of characters slowly learn about variety of local ethnic and economic issues. Sayles remains outspoken critic of capitalism and shows great sympathy towards those at the lower rungs of economic ladder. Unfortunately, somewhere in the middle what was supposed to be engaging social drama suddenly and not particularly convincingly transforms into adventure very much like Deliverance or The Edge. This genre definitely isn’t Sayles’ forte and instead of action he depicts endless and often pointless scenes where three characters accuse each other of being responsible for their predicament. Sayles tries to save general impression by introducing rather unconventional ending, but viewers are most likely to feel cheated by it. Bad impression isn’t improved even by a very good cast that includes Sayles’ old associate David Strathairn and Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio in one of rare opportunities to show singing talent. Same can be said for Alaskan landscapes, captured by renowned cinematographer Haskell Wexler. Limbo had potential, but Sayles used it for an experiment that would fail to get desired results.
RATING: 4/10 (+)
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