THE LIMEY

THE LIMEY (1999) **1/2

Reviewed 10/9/99

Steven Soderbergh's new film, The Limey, is two-parts John Boorman's Point Blank, one-part Nicholas Roeg time manipulation, with a dash of Jean-Luc Godard black comedy. All of it apparently inspired by Ken Loach's Poor Cow, The Limey adds up to a mess. An ex-con, Wilson (Terence Stamp), blames the death of his daughter on a wealthy record-producer, Terry Valentine (Peter Fonda) and goes to Los Angeles for revenge. As written by Lem Dobbs, The Limey does undermine expectations as most plot developments go nowhere. Valentine's right hand, Avery (a very good Barry Newman) hires a hit man (the amusing Nicky Katt) only for that to descend into nonsense. The police show up conveniently for no good reason and then disappear forever. Two of Wilson's daughter's friends help him for no good reason despite the great danger that puts them in. The two characters the viewer can identify with most turn out to be Terry and his youthful paramour, Adhara (Amelia Heinle, looking like Denise Richards here). Strangely, the beautiful Heinle gets two nonexploitative bathing scenes. Cinematographer Ed Lachman lensed the film beautifully, but otherwise, The Limey is something of an anti-movie, which is fine if you're into that sort of thing. Soderbergh deserves to be called one of the U.S.'s most admirable directors. Unfortunately, the majority of his films have not lived up to his ambitions.