Limbo (film)
Encyclopedia
Limbo is a 1999 drama film written, produced, edited, and directed by American independent filmmaker John Sayles
. The drama features Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio
, David Strathairn
, Vanessa Martinez
and Kris Kristofferson
.
In the United States, it was the first film released by the resurrected Screen Gems
unit of Sony Pictures Entertainment
.
) is a former high school basketball star and fisherman who quit fishing after some undisclosed tragedy. He now works as a handyman, particularly for Frannie and Lou, a lesbian couple who own the local resort hotel. Joe is friends with teenager Noelle De Angelo (Vanessa Martinez
) who also works for Frankie and Lou. At an event which they are working, Noelle's mother Donna (Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio
), a lounge singer, breaks up with her live in boyfriend and asks Joe for help in moving. The two of them become close and eventually begin a romantic relationship. Meanwhile, Joe gets the chance to return to fishing when Frankie and Lou ask him to work a fishing boat which they have acquired as collateral from local fisherman Harmon. Donna has a strained relationship with her daughter Noelle, due mainly to Noelle's disapproval of her mother's peripatetic bohemian lifestyle. This is exacerbated when Donna begins dating Joe, who Noelle had had a crush on. At a bar Donna overhears the story of why Joe quit fishing: he had been involved in a deadly sinking which claimed the lives of all of his boatmates, including the brother of local bush pilot and small time criminal "Smilin Jack" Johannson (Kris Kristofferson
).
Things change when Joe's dissolute half-brother Bobby shows up. He asks Joe to help crew his boat to pick up a client. Joe brings along Donna and Noelle. They dock for the night in an isolated bay and Bobby reveals the truth: Bobby had been involved in marijuana smuggling and had dumped a load overboard when he was spooked by the police. Now they are going to meet Bobby's partners to settle up his debt. That night, men sneak onto the boat and kill Bobby. Joe, Donna and Noelle flee to a nearby island where the men begin to hunt them. They take shelter in an abandoned cabin and try to survive as they wait for rescue. As they do they grow closer and Noelle finds a diary written by a teenage girl who had lived in the cabin with her family. She spends the nights reading the diary to Joe and Donna. Eventually Donna looks at the diary and discovers that most of it is blank. Noelle had made up most of its contents, expressing her own feelings through the diary. After a week and a half a sea plane sees their signal fire and lands. It's piloted by Smilin Jack Johannson, who explains that his radio is busted and that he doesn't have enough fuel to fly any of them out. He privately tells Joe that he was hired by a couple of men to look around and find three people roughing it. When informed about the murder of Bobby he expresses sympathy and promises to return tomorrow with a full tank and rescue them. Joe, who does not trust Smilin Jack, remains unsure of whether his return will bring rescue or the men who seek to kill them. The next morning Joe, Donna, and Noelle gather on the beach as Smilin Jack's plane flies towards them.
.
lauded the film and its story structure, writing, "What I liked so much about this story structure is that it confounded my expectations at every step. I expected the story to stay in Juneau, but it didn't. When it took a turn toward adventure, I thought the threat would come from nature—but it comes from men. After the three characters are stranded, I expected—I don't know what, maybe Swiss Family Robinson-style improvisation. But Sayles gradually reveals his buried theme, which is that in a place like the Alaskan wilderness you can never be sure what will happen next. And that optimism, bravery and ingenuity may not be enough."
Nominations
John Sayles
John Thomas Sayles is an American independent film director, screenwriter and author.-Early life:Sayles was born in Schenectady, New York, the son of Mary , a teacher, and Donald John Sayles, a school administrator. He was raised Catholic and took to labeling himself "a Catholic atheist"...
. The drama features Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio
Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio
Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio is an American actress and singer known for her role as Carmen in The Color of Money, as well as for her roles as Lindsey Brigman in The Abyss, Gina Montana in Scarface, and Maid Marian in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves.-Personal life:Mastrantonio was born in Lombard,...
, David Strathairn
David Strathairn
David Russell Strathairn is an American actor. He was nominated for an Academy Award for portraying journalist Edward R. Murrow in Good Night, and Good Luck...
, Vanessa Martinez
Vanessa Martínez
Vanessa Martínez is a Puerto Rican swimmer.She represented Puerto Rico at the 2003 Pan American Games in the 100 meter and 200 meter butterfly, the 200 meter and 400 meter individual medley and the 200 meter freestyle events.-References:*...
and Kris Kristofferson
Kris Kristofferson
Kristoffer "Kris" Kristofferson is an American musician, actor, and writer. He is known for hits such as "Me and Bobby McGee", "For the Good Times", "Sunday Mornin' Comin' Down", and "Help Me Make It Through the Night"...
.
In the United States, it was the first film released by the resurrected Screen Gems
Screen Gems
Screen Gems is an American movie production company and subsidiary company of Sony Pictures Entertainment's Columbia TriStar Motion Picture Group that has served several different purposes for its parent companies over the decades since its incorporation....
unit of Sony Pictures Entertainment
Sony Pictures Entertainment
Sony Pictures Entertainment, Inc. is the television and film production/distribution unit of Japanese multinational technology and media conglomerate Sony...
.
Plot
The film is set in fictional Port Henry, Alaska, a town undergoing stress as the local economy switches from an industrial one based around the canning and paper industries towards a tourism and leisure based model. Joe Gastineaux (David StrathairnDavid Strathairn
David Russell Strathairn is an American actor. He was nominated for an Academy Award for portraying journalist Edward R. Murrow in Good Night, and Good Luck...
) is a former high school basketball star and fisherman who quit fishing after some undisclosed tragedy. He now works as a handyman, particularly for Frannie and Lou, a lesbian couple who own the local resort hotel. Joe is friends with teenager Noelle De Angelo (Vanessa Martinez
Vanessa Martínez
Vanessa Martínez is a Puerto Rican swimmer.She represented Puerto Rico at the 2003 Pan American Games in the 100 meter and 200 meter butterfly, the 200 meter and 400 meter individual medley and the 200 meter freestyle events.-References:*...
) who also works for Frankie and Lou. At an event which they are working, Noelle's mother Donna (Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio
Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio
Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio is an American actress and singer known for her role as Carmen in The Color of Money, as well as for her roles as Lindsey Brigman in The Abyss, Gina Montana in Scarface, and Maid Marian in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves.-Personal life:Mastrantonio was born in Lombard,...
), a lounge singer, breaks up with her live in boyfriend and asks Joe for help in moving. The two of them become close and eventually begin a romantic relationship. Meanwhile, Joe gets the chance to return to fishing when Frankie and Lou ask him to work a fishing boat which they have acquired as collateral from local fisherman Harmon. Donna has a strained relationship with her daughter Noelle, due mainly to Noelle's disapproval of her mother's peripatetic bohemian lifestyle. This is exacerbated when Donna begins dating Joe, who Noelle had had a crush on. At a bar Donna overhears the story of why Joe quit fishing: he had been involved in a deadly sinking which claimed the lives of all of his boatmates, including the brother of local bush pilot and small time criminal "Smilin Jack" Johannson (Kris Kristofferson
Kris Kristofferson
Kristoffer "Kris" Kristofferson is an American musician, actor, and writer. He is known for hits such as "Me and Bobby McGee", "For the Good Times", "Sunday Mornin' Comin' Down", and "Help Me Make It Through the Night"...
).
Things change when Joe's dissolute half-brother Bobby shows up. He asks Joe to help crew his boat to pick up a client. Joe brings along Donna and Noelle. They dock for the night in an isolated bay and Bobby reveals the truth: Bobby had been involved in marijuana smuggling and had dumped a load overboard when he was spooked by the police. Now they are going to meet Bobby's partners to settle up his debt. That night, men sneak onto the boat and kill Bobby. Joe, Donna and Noelle flee to a nearby island where the men begin to hunt them. They take shelter in an abandoned cabin and try to survive as they wait for rescue. As they do they grow closer and Noelle finds a diary written by a teenage girl who had lived in the cabin with her family. She spends the nights reading the diary to Joe and Donna. Eventually Donna looks at the diary and discovers that most of it is blank. Noelle had made up most of its contents, expressing her own feelings through the diary. After a week and a half a sea plane sees their signal fire and lands. It's piloted by Smilin Jack Johannson, who explains that his radio is busted and that he doesn't have enough fuel to fly any of them out. He privately tells Joe that he was hired by a couple of men to look around and find three people roughing it. When informed about the murder of Bobby he expresses sympathy and promises to return tomorrow with a full tank and rescue them. Joe, who does not trust Smilin Jack, remains unsure of whether his return will bring rescue or the men who seek to kill them. The next morning Joe, Donna, and Noelle gather on the beach as Smilin Jack's plane flies towards them.
Cast
- Mary Elizabeth MastrantonioMary Elizabeth MastrantonioMary Elizabeth Mastrantonio is an American actress and singer known for her role as Carmen in The Color of Money, as well as for her roles as Lindsey Brigman in The Abyss, Gina Montana in Scarface, and Maid Marian in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves.-Personal life:Mastrantonio was born in Lombard,...
as Donna De Angelo - David StrathairnDavid StrathairnDavid Russell Strathairn is an American actor. He was nominated for an Academy Award for portraying journalist Edward R. Murrow in Good Night, and Good Luck...
as "Jumpin Joe" Gastineau - Vanessa MartinezVanessa MartínezVanessa Martínez is a Puerto Rican swimmer.She represented Puerto Rico at the 2003 Pan American Games in the 100 meter and 200 meter butterfly, the 200 meter and 400 meter individual medley and the 200 meter freestyle events.-References:*...
as Noelle De Angelo - Hermínio Ramos as Ricky
- Kris KristoffersonKris KristoffersonKristoffer "Kris" Kristofferson is an American musician, actor, and writer. He is known for hits such as "Me and Bobby McGee", "For the Good Times", "Sunday Mornin' Comin' Down", and "Help Me Make It Through the Night"...
as "Smilin Jack" Johannson - Dawn McInturff as Audrey
- Casey SiemaszkoCasey SiemaszkoCasey Siemaszko is an American actor and the brother of actress Nina Siemaszko. He was born in Chicago, Illinois on March 17, 1961 to a Polish American father, a fighter in the Polish Underground who survived the Sachsenhausen concentration camp and an English mother.Siemaszko's best known film...
as Bobby Gastineau - Kathryn Grody as Frankie
- Tom Biss as Baines
- Rita Taggart as Lou
- Leo BurmesterLeo BurmesterLeo Burmester was an American actor. Burmester worked for director John Sayles several times, including in Passion Fish and Lone Star , and also for directors such as John Schlesinger and Sidney Lumet, and as the Apostle Nathaniel in Martin Scorsese's The Last Temptation of Christ...
as Harmon King - Michael Laskin as Albright
- Jimmy MacDonell as Randy Mason
- Mérit Carlson-van Dort as Stacy
- Monica Brandner as Corky
Soundtrack
Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio performed four of the nine songs on the soundrack, which also features 'Lift Me Up', an original song by Bruce SpringsteenBruce Springsteen
Bruce Frederick Joseph Springsteen , nicknamed "The Boss," is an American singer-songwriter who records and tours with the E Street Band...
.
Critical reception
Film critic Roger EbertRoger Ebert
Roger Joseph Ebert is an American film critic and screenwriter. He is the first film critic to win a Pulitzer Prize for Criticism.Ebert is known for his film review column and for the television programs Sneak Previews, At the Movies with Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, and Siskel and Ebert and The...
lauded the film and its story structure, writing, "What I liked so much about this story structure is that it confounded my expectations at every step. I expected the story to stay in Juneau, but it didn't. When it took a turn toward adventure, I thought the threat would come from nature—but it comes from men. After the three characters are stranded, I expected—I don't know what, maybe Swiss Family Robinson-style improvisation. But Sayles gradually reveals his buried theme, which is that in a place like the Alaskan wilderness you can never be sure what will happen next. And that optimism, bravery and ingenuity may not be enough."
Awards
Wins- Seattle International Film FestivalSeattle International Film FestivalThe Seattle International Film Festival , held annually in Seattle, Washington since 1976, is among the top film festivals in North America. Audiences have grown steadily; the 2006 festival had 160,000 attendees...
: Golden Space Needle Award; Best Director, John Sayles; 1999. - National Board of Review: Special Recognition, for excellence in filmmaking; 1999.
Nominations
- Cannes Film Festival1999 Cannes Film FestivalThe 52nd Cannes Film Festival was held on May 12-23, 1999. The Palme d'Or went to the French-Belgian film Rosetta by Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne.-Jury:* David Cronenberg * André Téchiné * Barbara Hendricks...
: Palme d'OrPalme d'OrThe Palme d'Or is the highest prize awarded at the Cannes Film Festival and is presented to the director of the best feature film of the official competition. It was introduced in 1955 by the organising committee. From 1939 to 1954, the highest prize was the Grand Prix du Festival International du...
, John Sayles; 1999. - Independent Spirit AwardsIndependent Spirit AwardsThe Independent Spirit Awards , founded in 1984, are awards dedicated to independent filmmakers. Winners were typically presented with acrylic glass pyramids containing suspended shoestrings representing the paltry budgets of independent films. In 1986, the event was renamed the Independent Spirit...
: Independent Spirit Award; Best Male Lead, David Strathairn, Best Supporting Female, Vanessa Martinez; 2000. - Las Vegas Film Critics SocietyLas Vegas Film Critics SocietyThe Las Vegas Film Critics Society is a non-profit organization, composed of selected print, television and internet film critics in the Las Vegas metropolitan area....
Awards: Sierra Award; Best Actress, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio; 2000.
External links
- Limbo screenplay at Script-O-Rama
- "Limbo: Frustrated Narration" Movie: A Journal of Film Criticism, Issue 1, 2010