Oddly enough The Limey’s closest companion that I can think of is The American, a straightforward character study from a few years ago starring George Clooney as a complicated man entangled in quite straightforward circumstances in a foreign country. It was a solid film but hardly a memorable one.
Consider The Limey the cinematic brother from another mother. The situation is much the same, only the passports and positions in the Sexiest Man Alive charts differ.
Terence Stamp is Wilson, ‘The Limey’ to the various Americans who cross his path. He is a steely eyed stranger in a not so strange land. He is only in America to delve into the untimely death of his daughter Jennifer (Melissa George – only seen in a few flashbacks). And seems real angry that he is even forced to be in this country in the first place.
Wilson has a reputation. He is not afraid to ask the hard questions, and he often poses them in a hard way. Reluctance to respond is similarly met with even harder reprisals. It is following up after some especially ‘hard’ questions that the trail seems to lead to aging hippy music producer Terry Valentine (Peter Fonda), himself a well connected and well protected man – he travels with an older, but quite lethal, bodyguard and adviser of his own.
As is Wilson the plot of The Limey is similarly linear, bullshit free and driven. The film has occasional flourishes and flashy editing at times, with flashbacks to Wilson’s much younger days (lifted from one of his films from the 1960s), but it is really a showcase for Terrence Stamp. He plays Wilson with fierce blunt force intensity. A man who realizes he is out of place and past his prime, but he no longer cares, like the old guy at the stop sign tut-tutting the long haired idiot kid in the fast care next to him.
Only Wilson can back up his tut-tuts with actions. And he is more willing to do so.
The Limey has its moments and at a lean 90 minutes it remains powerful and compelling even when the sparseness of the plot threatens to let boredom in. Stamp’s simmering rage and need for vengeance maintains the interest for long enough, and Peter Fonda’s cocky rich guy with no self doubt act keeps us patiently awaiting the inevitable payoff.
The Limey might be more harmless than its namesake, but it is still a decent film, and probably a better film than such a threadbare plot warranted.
Final Rating – 7 / 10. I can’t wait for the sci-fi channel to come up with the ultimate crossover; The Limey vs The American.
