Limbo

Limbo is a murder mystery, but more importantly, it is the story of prejudice, neglect, and discrimination.

A detective from the city (unwillingly?) came (to review a 20 yrs old cold case of the murder of an aboriginal girl) to a remote outback city fittingly named Limbo, coz the city as well as the residents seem to be in a perpetual state of limbo.

The motel, where he stays, the residence of key characters, and a few other buildings are repurposed (old & abandoned) opal mines, giving the city a medieval feel. The attitude of authorities (law and order) towards the majority aboriginal community is of racism and apathy and can be best described as medieval. This is also reflected in their profession, at least the way the investigation was done in this particular case. The key characters are also in a state of emotional limbo - the battered detective (with a failed marriage and an estranged kid) and the victim's siblings with the feeling of bitterness, frustration, and helplessness, are unable to move on in life due to the injustice done and lack of a closer.

The slow pace of the narrative, characters, and camera added with minimal dialogues and hauntingly beautiful black & white cinematography, especially the slow, panning, wide-angle drone shots at night, enhances this feeling and you feel that you are in limbo too.

Aside from the stunning cinematography and some convincing performances, This movie is a recycled crime noir half-baked from the clichés of the genre. The story just ticks off the tropes of a lonesome, emotional wreck sort of cop who gets too personally involved in a case. No real reasons are offered for the detective's emotional involvement nor the way he resolves the mess the victim's family is in. The bleak detective 1. Has a broken marriage, 2. An estranged son, and 3. The guilt of killing someone in the past. He also is a drug addict and his addiction plays no role in his major decision-making moments nor becomes a struggle to prevent him from performing his heroic actions.

--Spoiler Alert--- The story unfolds as the victim's family refuses to talk to the detective because he is a cop and a white one too. Now that the trope is ticked off and we have some conflicts arrayed, the plot jumps over resolving this conflict and simply have the family members, without any change in their external or internal circumstances, to not only cooperate with him but also see him as a dear friend to the point of confiding their utmost feelings or reaching out for help in their very messed up family matters. The story conveniently ignores the fact that such a degree of vulnerability can only be shared with someone who has earned that kind of trust, and it fails even to offer a single trope-driven scene to cover this point.

Moving on to the next trope, when the lonesome detective gets to play a saviour to the victim's brother while drunk driving and a shoulder to cry for the victim's sister when she suddenly confides her twenty-year-old guilt, we are to believe that a cop who himself finds refuge in drugs to run away from his own dark feelings is so adeptly capable of giving generous care and compassion to some strangers. While it is possible for an emotional wreck to empathize with others, in this case, we have a character whose choice for dealing with emotional upheavals is escape. If this approach is to change, we must see him going through a serious struggle to earn that sort of mental strength, but again the story simply lets him without paying any price to switch gear and offer a great deal of openness and courage.

Mentioned above are only a few issues, there are too many complaisant moments in this film that make it barely engaging, yet the overwhelmingly positive feedback given on this website (currently at %95) which I believe is mostly from Australian critics indicates one thing. We set a much lower bar for an Australian film.

I was hesitant to watch it but as it got further into the movie I was hooked. I loved it being shot in black and white, and the area it was shot in was amazing. Simon Baker played his role so well and I think this is one of his best movies.

The movie does touch on a subject that lots of people dont like talking about between the whites and the indigenous. It was mentioned that if it was a white girl that had gone missing a lot more would have been done but as she wasn't nothing was done to find the person who did it. The ending well....you should watch it and I think you will be surprised by it.

The actors in this movie do a great job. Unfortunately thats where it stops.

While black and white might be an artist choir because of the name "Limbo" that could have been great that means the costume designer needed some more contrast. The whole film is grey.

There is nothing in the script that engages us with the characters themselves.. Who and why are the main missing themes.

The main character is obviously reworking a cold case, there is nothing about her case that is clear; is she miss6or or murdered. We don't even know what she looks like.

So many themes that could have been deeper. The overall script is an echo of the name, nothing is resolved, nothing is explained.

Very atmospheric strong drama with charismatic Simon Baker subtly reminiscent of Walter White: calm masculinity and brokenness.

Filmed beautifully. Black and white film convincingly and vividly conveys heat, heat and hopelessness.

It's true. The acting is excellent. I believe in this story. It will probably be difficult for those who have not lived in small dying towns, who have not experienced the melancholy of impoverished provincial life, to appreciate this film. But this is what happens in life - unfair and cruel. And in order to survive, and not go crazy, you need to find the strength to let go of the situation and move on.