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`LIMBO’ AN UNORTHODOX RIDE

`Limbo,” the 12th feature of the truly independent filmmaker John Sayles, is set in Alaska, where the land is vast and the living hard. As shot by cinematographer Haskell Wexler, our northernmost state becomes a territory full of danger and enticement. The trees, the bodies of water and the empty hillsides — all bathed in the gray light of high, overcast skies — become both picturesque and threatening, alive with menace and cold, harsh beauty.

The movie itself is a good one: a kind of existential family drama about three people — a taciturn fisherman, a rootless malcontent bar singer and her smart, alienated teenage daughter — all forced into a desperate fight for survival. It has the same rich, seemingly contradictory qualities as those breathtaking Alaskan landscapes. Full of chilly grace notes, perverse twists and scary emotional drop-offs, “Limbo” is something special and strange: an adventure story with little action, a thriller with little conventional suspense and a romance with minimal sex and seduction.

Yet it works. In his own way, Sayles is a master storyteller, but he’s also a filmmaker who avoids conventional narrative uplift, refuses to give his audiences the easy way out. “Limbo” is an intellectual movie about a primal life-and-death situation. Yet, as you watch it, it has a compelling, gutty quality, pulling you in while also leaving you emotionally high and dry.

Sayles’ film also has what may be the most controversial movie ending of the year. The only thing you can fairly say in a review is that this resolution will almost certainly madly frustrate part of the audience. Others, though, may treasure Sayles’ audacity and the movie’s last haunting image.

The mood Sayles is after — and which he sometimes gets — is the disturbing, angst-ridden sense of life’s threat and humanity’s vulnerability that can be found in Joseph Conrad’s sea novels. Here, Sayles’ longtime leading actor David Strathairn (who made his debut in Sayles’ first film, the 1980 “Return of the Secaucus Seven”) plays fisherman Joe Gastineau, an ex-high school basketball star whose life, like that of Conrad’s Lord Jim, has been blasted by a tragic error and loss of lives at sea. Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio and Vanessa Martinez play Joe’s womanfriend, singer Donna De Angelo, and Donna’s angry daughter Noelle, who both join Joe for a seemingly routine voyage contracted by Joe’s glib half-brother Bobby (Casey Siemaszko).

What happens on that trip comes as a shock, with the scary aftermath placing maximum stress on several kinds of family ties.

Strathairn displays his usual dolorous solidity and intelligence and Mastrantonio startles us both by her naked emotionalism and the vibrancy of her singing. Siemaszko is just right as the verbose, deceptive Bobby — and Kris Kristofferson radiates ambivalent machismo as a mysterious local character nicknamed Smilin’ Jack. Bobby and Jack keep us guessing, just as Joe keeps us grounded.

“Limbo” is exactly the sort of movie you’d expect from Sayles: smart, literate, trimly shot, nicely judged, never overemotional. It was an official competitive selection at Cannes — the first of Sayles’ career — and I thought it was underrated by many U.S. critics there. Sayles’ tight-lipped, terse quality may alienate some reviewers (and audiences). Yet it’s a relief from the explosive emotion-squeezing of many other American movies. And Sayles, always strongest as a writer, really benefits from working with Wexler, a great cinematographer who can endow Sayles’ movies (like “Matewan” and “The Secret of Roan Inish”) with a visual purity, strength and beauty.

Since he is an American filmmaker who has remained his own man inside an industry that seems designed to frustrate independence, it seems appropriate that Sayles is so preoccupied with the pitfalls of life, the “limbo” of his title. Sayles asks us to contemplate the fragility of relationships and the violent turnabouts to which fate sometimes subjects us. At its worst, “Limbo” is ersatz Conrad. But at its best, the film makes us feel that uncertainty and darkness, casting us into the cul-de-sac of modern life and love.

”LIMBO”

(star) (star) (star) 1/2

Directed, edited and written by John Sayles; photographed by Haskell Wexler; production designed by Gemma Jackson; music by Mason Daring; produced by Maggie Renzi. A Screen Gems release; opens Friday. Running time: 2:06. MPAA rating: R. Language, sensuality, nudity, violence.

THE CAST

Donna De Angelo ………. Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio

Joe Gastineau ………… David Strathairn

Noelle De Angelo ……… Vanessa Martinez

Smilin’ Jack …………. Kris Kristofferon

Bobby Gastineau ………. Casey Siemaszko

Frankie ……………… Kathryn Grody