The Limey

A crime film set in Los Angeles. Wilson comes from England. He has just come out of prison; his daughter died in a road accident in America and he does not believe it. He has one name: the man she was with, a rich producer from the music world. From there the film becomes an investigation. Wilson finds his daughter's friends, goes to a warehouse, works his way to the man's house. His method is crude; he does not ask and learn, he goes in and forces. The real difference is in the editing. The scenes do not run in order: the sound of one conversation lies over the image of another place, the same moment returns from different angles, something that will happen appears already. The narrative is built like the disorder inside a man's head. In the flashbacks there is a young Wilson, and that footage is genuinely old: the film uses scenes from a picture the same actor made in the 1960s. What the narrative is interested in is not revenge but being too late: the man knows nothing of his daughter's life and everything he learns leaves him further outside it. Terence Stamp plays Wilson. Peter Fonda, Lesley Ann Warren, Luis Guzmán and Barry Newman are in the cast. Steven Soderbergh directed. Who it is for: anyone who likes experiments in editing and films that salute the crime cinema of the 1970s. Who it is not for: anyone looking for a straight story; the film is short but fragmented and its plot is deliberately thin.