PLATFORM: DVD | RELEASE DATE: AUGUST 4TH
Jimmy (The Walking Dead’s Lew Temple) is a murderer put on trial after death to determine whether he should go to heaven or hell. Defending him is an inexperienced attorney, Cassiel (Scottie Thompson), while hoping to send him down for eternity is the ruthless prosecutor, Balthazar (Lucian Charles Collier). As they dive deeper into the details of Jimmy’s life, his fate seems ever more in the air and you wonder if he is really the one upon whom judgement will be passed.
The film starts a little slowly and you never feel like the actors are extracting the most out of their roles. Collier, in particular, starts out by aiming for dryness, but instead gives a performance that feels largely bland until the end. The great Veronica Cartwright also feels slightly underused in her role as Jimmy’s mother. While Limbo could make much better use of its cast, the story is nicely paced. A gripping courtroom drama reaches its peak when Jimmy is forced to confront demons of his past, the drama fizzling out slightly whenever the setting moves away from the interrogation room. Jimmy’s relationship with Angela (Lauryn Canny) adds some much-needed emotional heft to the film and contextualises Jimmy’s actions without justifying them.
Whether Jimmy’s ‘redemptive’ act is actually all that redeeming is never quite tied up, but writer-director Mark Young, for the most part, gives us a layered story of ethics and predestination. With light slices of humour and a well-crafted ending, Limbo exists in the void between something perfectly executed and somewhat unmemorable.
