The Limey

The Limey

Theatrical release poster
Directed by Steven Soderbergh
Produced by John Hardy
Scott Kramer
Written by Lem Dobbs
Starring Terence Stamp
Lesley Ann Warren
Luis Guzmán
Barry Newman
Peter Fonda
Music by Cliff Martinez
Michael Glenn Williams
Cinematography Edward Lachman
Edited by Sarah Flack
Distributed by Artisan Entertainment
Release dates
  • October 8, 1999 (United States)
Running time
 89 minutes
Country United States
Language English
Budget $10 million
Box office $3,204,663
(Worldwide)[1]

The Limey is a 1999 American crime film, directed by Steven Soderbergh and written by Lem Dobbs. The film features Terence Stamp, Lesley Ann Warren, Luis Guzmán, Barry Newman, and Peter Fonda.[2]

It was filmed on location in L.A. and Big Sur.

Plot

Wilson (Stamp), recently released from a British prison, travels to Los Angeles to investigate the death of his daughter Jenny, who is reported to have died in a car accident. While adjusting to the United States, he finds allies in Jenny's friends Eduardo (Guzmán) and Elaine (Warren) and comes up with a suspect: Jenny's boyfriend Terry Valentine (Fonda), a record producer. Valentine has connections with drug trafficking through his security consultant Avery (Newman). After locating the warehouse of the drug importer with whom Avery had done business and retrieving Valentine's home address, Wilson is overpowered and beaten by the drug trafficker's thugs, who also insult his daughter's name. After he is thrown out, Wilson retrieves a back-up pistol, goes back and kills all but one of the employees, shouting at the last to "Tell him I'm coming!" The employee relays this threat to Avery who reports it to Valentine.

Wilson reminisces with Elaine and Eduardo about his past relationship with his daughter, whom he only remembers as a child. As he recalls, Jenny always threatened to call the police when she found her father had committed crimes. He states she did not because she truly loved him. His criminal life put strain on his wife and child, but they never left him. He ended up in prison after the thieves he was associated with confessed to his involvement in their crimes.

Wilson and Eduardo infiltrate a party at Valentine's house, where Wilson searches for evidence. He finds and steals a picture of Jenny. Attracting suspicion from Avery, Wilson is accosted by a guard, who Wilson then throws over a ledge, killing him. Wilson and Eduardo flee, and are chased by Avery who shoots at them with a shotgun. Wilson rams Avery's car into a ditch and he and Eduardo escape, but not before Eduardo makes the mistake of calling out Wilson's name within Avery's hearing. Afterward, Avery hires a hit-man named Stacy (Katt), who tracks down Wilson and Elaine. DEA agents prevent the attempted killing, and escort Wilson and Elaine to meet a DEA agent who is investigating Valentine. After the meeting it is clear the agent will not interfere with Wilson. Stacy and his partner then plot a double cross on Avery and Valentine.

Avery moves Valentine and his girlfriend to a safe house in Big Sur, with Wilson following them. That night, Avery's guards shoot an intruder, who is revealed to be Stacy. Avery and the guards engage in a shootout with Stacy's partner, resulting in several deaths. Valentine flees to the beach with Wilson in pursuit. After he falls and breaks his ankle on the rocks, Valentine admits that Jenny found out about his drug business, picked up the telephone, and threatened to call the police. Attempting to restrain her, he accidentally broke her neck. Avery then staged her death as a car accident. Wilson is haunted, knowing that Jenny would never have turned Valentine in, because (as a twelve-year-old girl) she had used the very same bluff on her father. Wilson decides to return to London, saying goodbye to Elaine and Eduardo.

The narrative structure of the film is presented in disjointed flashbacks by Wilson during the plane trip home.

Cast

Production

Directing

Steven Soderbergh uses atypical flashback sequences, and includes several scenes (no dialogue) from a much older Terence Stamp movie, Ken Loach's 1967 directorial debut Poor Cow. Soderbergh uses the scenes to create a hazy back story to show Stamp's character as a young man, and his relationship with a woman, Jenny's mother.[3] Wilson often speaks in a Cockney rhyming slang. The title refers to the American slang Limey, which refers to Britons.[4][5]

In a scene later in the film, Fonda's character is watching TV, and footage from Access Hollywood is shown—a clip of George Clooney discussing his first visit to Italy. Soderbergh made the film Out of Sight with Clooney the previous year.[6]

Editing

Film editor Sarah Flack utilizes a variety of unorthodox editing techniques in The Limey. The film frequently features dialogue and background sound from previous or future scenes juxtaposed with a current scene. Dialogue from one conversation, for instance, may find itself dispersed throughout the film, articulated for the first time long after its chronological moment has passed, as a sort of narrative flashback superimposed over later conversation, to complete a character's thought or punctuate a character's emphasis. Background sound may be disjointed in the film and shifted to enhance another scene by suggesting continuation, similarity, or dissimilarity, For example, Wilson is in a hotel room, and turns on the shower, and Wilson is in a plane looking out the window, and the shower can be heard.

Release

The Limey was first presented at the 1999 Cannes Film Festival on May 15.[7] It was also featured at the Toronto Film Festival, the Buenos Aires International Festival of Independent Cinema, and the Hong Kong International Film Festival.

A limited release in the US began on October 8, 1999 and did poorly at the box office. Its first week's gross was $187,122 (17 screens) and the total receipts for the run were $3,193,102.[8] The film was in wide release for seventeen weeks (115 days), and was shown in 105 theaters.[9]

Reception

Critical response

Critical reception of The Limey was largely positive, with the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reporting 93% of critics gave the film a positive review, based on eighty reviews.[10]

Edward Guthmann, film critic of the San Francisco Chronicle, praised the direction, and film's screenplay, and wrote, "The Limey...is a first-rate crime thriller and further proof that Soderbergh is one of our great contemporary film stylists. Taut, imaginative and complex, this is one of the best American films of the year and a wonderful antidote to the numbing sameness of [some] movies."[11] Critic Janet Maslin wrote of Terence Stamp's work, "Stamp plays the title role furiously, with single-minded intensity, wild blue eyes and a stentorian roar shown off in the film's early moments...Glimpses of young, dreamily beautiful Stamp and his no less imposing latter-day presence are used by Soderbergh with touching efficacy."[12]

The film critic for Variety magazine, Emanuel Levy, lauded the crime drama and liked the direction of the picture, the acting, and the screenplay, yet thought the film "lacks secondary characters and subplots." He wrote, "The Limey, Steven Soderbergh's new crime picture, continues the helmer's artistic renewal, evident last year in the superbly realized Out of Sight. Pic's most interesting element is the positioning of two icons of 1960s cinema, the very British Terence Stamp and the very American Peter Fonda, as longtime enemies in what's basically a routine revenge thriller...[and] one has no problem praising the bravura acting of the entire ensemble and the pic's impressive technical aspects. Warren, Guzman and Barry Newman give maturely restrained performances in line with the film's dominant texture. A supporting turn by Joe Dallessandro, Andy Warhol's and Paul Morrissey's regular, accentuates pic's reflexive nature as a commentary on a bygone era of filmmaking."[13]

Accolades

Won

References

  1. ↑ Box Office Mojo web site.
  2. ↑ The Limey at the American Film Institute Catalog.
  3. ↑ Ebert, Roger. Chicago Sun-Times, film review, October 8, 1999. Accessed: August 6, 2013.
  4. ↑ "lim·ey". Merriam-Webster's Learner's Dictionary. Retrieved : August 6, 2013. Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
  5. ↑ Oxford Dictionaries: Limey Accessed: August 6, 2013.
  6. ↑ Out of Sight at the Internet Movie Database.
  7. ↑ "Festival de Cannes: The Limey". festival-cannes.com. Retrieved : August 6, 2013. Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
  8. ↑ Box Office Mojo. Accessed: 6, 2013.
  9. ↑ The Numbers box office data. Accessed: August 6, 2013.
  10. ↑ The Limey at Rotten Tomatoes. Accessed: August 6, 2013.
  11. ↑ Guthmann, Edward. The San Francisco Chronicle, film review, page C-3, October 8, 1999. Accessed: August 6, 2013.
  12. ↑ Maslin, Janet. The New York Times, Art Section, "The Limey: Touring Show-Business Royalty and Its Underworld," film review, October 8, 1999. Accessed: August 6, 2013.
  13. ↑ Levy, Emanuel. Variety, film review, May 18, 1999. Accessed: August 6, 2013.

External links