An ageing Engish criminal (Terence Stamp) travels to California to exact revenge on those responsible for the death of his daughter.

Stamp has a lot of fun as a cockney criminal, who is released from jail after nine years (where he has mysteriously picked up a lot of fashion tips and a Californian suntan) and who is determined to reduce the cast of former stars and TV actors until he either gets justice, or the audience loses sympathy. It’s essentially a remake of
the Get Carter/Point Blank/Payback story (bloke travels through alien landscape, narrowing his eyes and looking obsessed), but told in Soderbergh’s usual relaxed way.

So… what was the point Steve? Are we supposed to identify with Stamp’s obsessions, or is he a nut who can’t let the past go? I’m yet to come across anything resembling a committed viewpoint in any of Soderbergh’s movies, or indeed any action scene which even looks like it’s been thought through properly. What’s the point of a relaxed thriller?

If you think I’m being a bit unkind (and Soderbergh admits to the last failing on his DVD commentary), then I’ll admit that there are a few incidental pleasures involved. The movie has a fairly clean visual and aural style. The footage of Stamp as a young man is taken from Ken Loach’s Poor Cow, and is integrated pretty well, without adding anything to the plot. Stamp’s ‘Cockney’ accent is the funniest since Dick Van Dyke, and Stamp has less excuse (he comes from Stepney, not West Plains Missouri). Note to US screenwriters: he refers several times to the fact that his daughter ‘wrote him’ in jail. We say ‘wrote TO him’ over here.

It’s little details like this that Soderberg is otherwise pretty good on; the background characters are always quirkier than his main ones, as if he’s afraid to make a fool of himself or anyone else important.However it’s another intensely bland dish served up by the director, who is fast becoming a critics’ darling without actually making any movies which make any money. If you’re a Soderbergh fan, get in touch, I’d love to know if his movies are supposed to be thrillers (and if you’re going to say his movies are all about character rather than plot, don’t bother). For everyone else, their main memory of The Limey will probably be as the movie where Peter Fonda had a really nice house. Revenge is a dish best served cold. Or hot. Anything but tepid.

Mild Peril Rating:

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