Synopsis
Traumatized by a fishing boat accident many years before, Joe Gastineau has given up his hopes for a life beyond the odd jobs he takes to support himself. That quickly changes when nomadic club singer Donna de Angelo and her troubled teen-age daughter enter Joe’s life. Both mother and daughter fall for Joe, increasing the friction between them. The tension continues to build when Joe invites them on a pleasure cruise up the Alaskan coast, discovering too late that the trip may cost them their lives.
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Cast
- Mary Elizabeth MastrantonioDonna De Angelo
- David StrathairnJoe Gastineau
- Vanessa MartinezNoelle De Angelo
- Kris KristoffersonSmilin' Jack
- Casey SiemaszkoBobby Gastineau
- Kathryn GrodyFrankie
- Rita TaggartLou
- Leo BurmesterHarmon King
- Michael LaskinAlbright
- Hermínio RamosRicky
Recommendations
- 90
Rolling Stone
Limbo is vital personal filmmaking from a world-class practitioner of the art. - 88
ReelViews
For a while, Limbo seems like it might be a slow-burning romance and tale of redemption, but, as is often the case, Sayles takes his audience in unexpected directions (unexpected because they defy comfortable, traditional narrative routes). - 75
Chicago Sun-Times
Sayles has started with a domestic comedy, and led us unswervingly into the heart of darkness. - 75
San Francisco Chronicle
Both halves of the film are exquisitely acted and written, both are emotionally true, and yet they don't quite fit together. - 75
The A.V. Club
The weaknesses in Sayles' story and his occasional bouts with didacticism are far outweighed by the film's exceptional intimacy and humanity. - 70
The New York Times
If this oddly structured film feels like two short stories stuck together, there is enough solid glue joining them that they resonate off one another deeply. - 67
Austin Chronicle
Excellent performances and the steadying camerawork of Haskell Wexler make Limbo a supremely engaging work, but this place to which Sayles condemns his viewers is just one rung removed from Purgatory. - 67
IndieWire
Though it’s admirable that Sayles shows so much ambition to change his style and to give his film such a weight of unpredictability, he doesn’t really succeed at matching the depth of the film’s first half.
