Review of The Limey (1999) by Jairo G — 12 Apr 2009

Soderbergh's crime drama pushes the syntax of dramatic cinema and explores memory as a human experience and how it relates directly to an understanding of film (film is a temporal art and you have to remember the beginning to get the end).

Terence Stamp is fresh out of jail and heads for Los Angeles to investigate his daughter's death only to be manuipulated by his own demons. Not only does Soderbergh produce some of his most arresting visual displays but he is that rare director that makes every character, no matter how minor, come to life and linger in our, well memories.

The inclusion of footage of Stamp in Ken Loach's Poor Cow only adds to the emotional core of the film and the smoke and mirrors.