TIFF ’23 Review: ‘Limbo’ is gritty at a cost
‘Limbo’ opens old wounds when police decide to look at a cold case that tore apart a family.
Detective Travis Hurley (Simon Baker) arrives in town with few leads to follow. A half-empty evidence box, some police interview audio recordings and the addresses of a few persons of interest is all he has to go on. He’s been assigned to conduct a preliminary review of Charlotte’s disappearance as those above his paygrade decide if they want to reopen the case. Beginning with her living relatives, Travis goes to speak to her now grown siblings, Charlie (Rob Collins) and Emma (Natasha Wanganeen), both of whom have lived difficult lives. While everyone initially seems reluctant to revisit the past, they eventually reveal secrets and rumours that may lead Travis to finally identifying a viable suspect.
The film is presented entirely in black and white, which is a double-edged sword in this instance. On the one hand, the stark contrasts give the impression of a gritty, hard-nosed detective story. On the other hand, there are long shots of sweeping landscapes pocked with holes from the opal mining industry that’s long dried up, but the impact of these barren backdrops become lost in the monochrome aesthetic. As Travis’ investigation progresses, it becomes clear the original inquiry was plagued by errors and apathy, and the fallout from the unsolved mystery is still being felt today. His line of questioning opens old wounds, but also compels people to remember and confess things that shed some light on what may have happened all those years ago.
This isn’t a typical crime drama as there’s no urgency to solving the case. Nonetheless, there are just enough developments to keep audiences engaged, while the secondary stories fill in the gaps.
Limbo had its North American premiere in the Centrepiece programme at the Toronto International Film Festival.
Read other reviews from the festival.
Director: Ivan Sen
Starring: Simon Baker, Rob Collins and Natasha Wanganeen
