VeteranLight I don't have all the words right now but this film is a work of art.

InformationRap This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

Adeel Hail Unshakable, witty and deeply felt, the film will be paying emotional dividends for a long, long time.

Curt Watching it is like watching the spectacle of a class clown at their best: you laugh at their jokes, instigate their defiance, and "ooooh" when they get in trouble.

gtrz If many of your great cinematic experiences have been found on the Lifetime channel or maybe the Halmark channel then you might like this movie. It has a very distinct made-for-TV feel to it. The only difference is there are a few strong swear words here and there.The acting is sub par, the story isn't all that interesting. There is a flat romance, a guy with a tragedy in his past and some mother-daughter tension and thats about it. Until the end when some "evil drug dealers" appear on the scene in an attempt to create some tension, which I personally found only laughable. Calling this movie a "thriller" is a bit misleading.Overall, a very dull and forgettable film. It isn't worth the 2 hours it takes to get through to the "clever" ending.

bobsgrock John Sayles, one of the founders of American independent cinema, gives a terrific and engrossing story every time he makes a film. After seeing his take on the small-town Texas persona in Lonestar, I was prepared to see Limbo. I was not prepared for how it would affect me.This is, quite simply, a masterful work of cinema and narrative. Unlike most directors, Sayles is brilliant and relentless in his purpose. He takes his time to set up the plot, diving right into the strange, shapeless lives of a group of fishermen and natives in Port Henry, Alaska. Everyone in town is forced to reminisce in one way or another. The town is suffering financially, and the way Sayles has his camera almost sneak up and hide behind characters in order to listen to what the locals are saying is genius.Of course, typical Sayles, the plot is almost completely unpredictable. It begins, like Lonestar, as a detailed look into the lives of a small Alaskan fishing town with the lonely, drifting lives of the inhabitants taking front stage. Then, midway the plot completely shifts gears and we get a tale of man vs. nature, the elements that threaten to destroy and overtake the fighting spirit of people. It is here that the cast truly shines. David Straitharin, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio and Vanessa Martinez are equally fantastic in their respective, so much so that it is impossible to imagine any other actor playing any of these parts. Sayles is masterful at casting and he proves that here unlike anything else he has done. The final third of the film rests heavily on the relationship between these three characters, so it is crucial that they relate well together and be believable. I couldn't ask for three better performances.In the end, this film is completely stamped with the unique style of John Sayles. Because he is so unpredictable, it is a truly satisfying feeling after seeing one of his films. You feel, not jilted and tricked like most films do, but happy and understanding what and why things happened. This is certainly a film I will be thinking about for awhile after seeing it and I can only hope that filmmakers like Sayles will continue to stick around. After all, these are the kind of films that need to be continued. It has soul, personality and a quality that can teach and inspire. A truly great film.

howie73 This is certainly a film of two halves. It feels like an upmarket TV movie at first but the acting and camera-work are superior to that aforementioned fare. There is a sense of a community evoked by Sayles's direction as he follows a diverse array of characters and overlaps their problems with the actions of others, while, at the same time, providing enough social commentary on the evils of capitalism that threaten the natural beauty of Alaska. This socio-political commentary is subtle enough because Sayles avoids stereotypes in his portrayal of the inhabitants. The first half feels fragmented at times but the presentation of the blossoming romance between the two main characters provides a seemingly stable counterpoint to the Altmanesque rendering of the tale.However, the film is really a tease. It abandons the first half in favor of the unexpected Lord of the Flies scenario involving the three main characters for the second half. Moreover, it changes mood full circle, using fear and anxiety as the main concerns of the three stranded characters, whose lives hang in the balance, in a state of limbo as it were. I wasn't sure how the first half related to the second, and I still feel uneasy about the total break Sayles employed between both parts. As a result, it feels like two films joined together. I also feel Sayles abandoned any sense of a multi-threaded narrative drive he successfully built into the first part in favor of the unexpected second part. The second part may symbolically allude to the film's title but it's also an abrupt digression of the preceding genre. Why bother with showing the first hour if it wasn't followed up? Why bother showing many characters in the first half, then abandoning their concerns in the later, as if it didn't matter? This is essentially a TV movie for the art-house crowd but one that challenges and frustrates in equal measure.

Theo Robertson I missed the opening credits of LIMBO therefore I didn`t realise that the director was John Sayles which is of some importance if you`re going to watch this movie As it was I thought I was going to be watching an indie production similar to THE SHIPPING NEWS with a very slow burning romantic drama set in a cold region of North America and for at least half its running time LIMBO plays out in this way with long boring scenes set in bars and fish factories . Singer Donna de Angelo meets Joe who`s a fisherman , but there`s some fore shadowing that Donna`s daughter Noelle is bitterly jealous about this relationship and I had thought the film`s climax will revolve around a confrontation involving this jealousy . However about halfway through the running time we`re whalloped in the face as the movie moves in a different direction with Joe , Donna and Noelle fighting for their very lives Being an indie production LIMBO plays out entirely differently from how it would if it was produced by a Hollywood studio , and to be honest I`m still not sure if that`s a good or bad thing . Opinion on this page is very divided as to the merits of LIMBO so it may be a good idea to familarise yourself with John Sayles previous work before you see this movie