Sayles Juggles Expectations in ‘Limbo’

Writer-director John Sayles’ “Return of the Secaucus Seven” helped launch the current American independent film movement in 1980, and now “Limbo,” his 12th and latest feature, reminds us what true independence means.

Moving and empathetic but also unsettling and curiously structured, “Limbo,” like much of Sayles’ output, insists on satisfactions that branch out beyond the conventional. If much recent independent work has been as wearily formulaic as the studios at their worst, this film takes another path, ebbing and flowing in eccentric, unexpected ways.

The storytelling in “Limbo” is not merely multilayered, it comes in different forms, from the personal and melodramatic to the cultural and sociological. A filmmaker who casually puts more into his work than others do by huffing and puffing, Sayles has in this case skirted the edge of overreaching. While his diverse elements are engrossing on their own, they do not always mesh with each other as tightly as we would like.

“Limbo” follows the Sayles pattern of setting each new project in a different part of the U.S. and using film to explore the culture and the people of that particular region. Getting the nod this time is Alaska, with shooting done in the capital city of Juneau (renamed Port Henry for the film).

Even though it’s not his primary focus, Sayles supplies an informative meditation on life in a state hovering between traditional industries like fishing and logging and the new boom in tourism, symbolized by cruise ships pointedly characterized as “floating nursing homes.” In a world where movies rarely touch on issues, this kind of real-world concern is frankly bracing.

Working with superb cinematographer Haskell Wexler (who also shot “Matewan” and “The Secret of Roan Inish” for him), Sayles provides strong images of Alaska’s natural beauty and the grittiness of both fishing and fish processing, images that securely ground the story in its setting.

It’s always the people, however, and not the pictures that Sayles cares about most: Few directors are more instinctively caring, or provide for more moments of grace between characters. In this case the key people are a man and a woman who need to decide whether what they’ve gone through in life leaves them with the wherewithal to attempt a relationship one more time.

Donna De Angelo (Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio in a welcome return to form) is a singer exasperated both by her “so-called career” and her sullen teenage daughter Noelle (“Lone Star’s” Vanessa Martinez). The film opens with Donna singing at a wedding and then publicly stomping out of yet another relationship that’s proved less satisfying than she had hoped.

If Donna is a wanderer, someone who’s worked in 36 states and Puerto Rico, homeboy Joe Gastineau (Sayles veteran David Strathairn) has only been as far as Seattle--and there just a couple of times. Reserved and distant, Joe has a tragedy in his past, something that has kept him away from fishing for 25 years and made him especially tentative where relationships are concerned.

Both Strathairn, who manages to be sensitive and intensely masculine, and the gifted Mastrantonio, who sings beautifully and has a presence that lights up like a fire, do a wonderful job conveying the kind of wary tenderness their parts require and their relationship turns out to be one of the most affecting Sayles has put on film.

But whenever you think you know where “Limbo” is going, it heads off in another direction like an ornery prospector determined to stake one last claim. Different parts of Joe’s past, including a slippery half-brother (Casey Siemaszko) and a pilot he has unfinished business with (Kris Kristofferson) reappear in his life, and suddenly we are in a completely different movie whose concerns for physical survival and verbal storytelling are intriguing but unexpected.

The same goes for “Limbo’s” resolution, a scenario that is consistent with the film’s title and intentionally leaves a problematic taste. Determined to use melodrama as a vehicle to get to other places and explore other possibilities, Sayles simply assumes the audience will go along with him. His skill is such that we invariably do, but the journey, like that of his characters, is not always an easy one.

* MPAA rating: R for language. Times guidelines: intense adult subject matter.

‘Limbo’

Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio: Donna De Angelo

David Strathairn: Joe Gastineau

Vanessa Martinez: Noelle De Angelo

Kris Kristofferson: Smilin’ Jack

Casey Siemaszko: Bobby Gastineau

A Screen Gems presentation of a Green/Renzi production, released by Sony Pictures. Director John Sayles. Producer Maggie Renzi. Screenplay by John Sayles. Cinematographer Haskell Wexler. Editor John Sayles. Costumes Shay Cunliffe. Music Mason Darling. Production design Gemma Jackson. Art director Keith Neely. Set decorator Brian Kasch. Running time: 2 hours, 6 minutes.

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