Limbo

Maverick filmmaker John Sayles turns his eloquent gift for storytelling to the rugged wilds of southeastern Alaska, where the frontier spirit survives even as workers bemoan the closing of the salmon cannery and two-bit boosters dream of turning the area into a frontier theme park. Sayles focuses on three characters, all with unhappy pasts—a local handyman (David Strathairn), a down-and-out saloon singer (Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio), and the singer’s teenage daughter (Vanessa Martinez)—and maroons them in the wild pursued by drug smugglers. But the real story isn’t just the survivalist melodrama, it’s the plight of wounded souls whose physical predicament serves to show them that they’ve been in Limbo for some time. Sayles’ lady-or-the-tiger ending is a surprise, but it’s the only right one.