Independent Films, Film Profiles

Limbo (film)
by John_Sayles

Limbo is a 1999 drama film written, directed, and produced by American filmmaker John Sayles. The drama features Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, David Strathairn, Vanessa Martinez and Kris Kristofferson.In the United States, it was the first film released by the resurrected Screen Gems unit of Sony Pictures Entertainment.Set in the fictional town of Port Henry, Alaska,(although filmed in and around Juneau, Alaska) Joe Gastineaux (Strathairn) is a former high school basketball star and fisherman who works as a handyman. Donna De Angelo (Mastrantonio) is a lounge singer. Noelle (Martinez) is Donna's daughter and a coworker of Joe's.The first half of the film tells the relationship between Joe and Donna as they become romantically involved, and Donna negotiates a troubled relationship with her daughter.Joe's dissolute brother takes the three along on a boat trip. The brother is murdered by drug dealers to whom he owes money and Joe, Donna, and Noelle are forced to seek shelter on an uninhabited island. The film takes its name, in part, from the uncertainty of their fate on the island.