The Limey is smart, unique, and innovative. Soderbergh displays his true artistry in this film, a film that is stylistically divergent from every other revenge thriller. Terence Stamp plays a father fresh out of a British prison who goes to the States to discover the details of his daughter's "mysterious car accident." As with any movie based on this premise, it was not an accident, but murder. And he must kill the person responsible. The plot is nothing to write home about; the striking aspect is the style. Soderbergh pushes the envelope of common cinematic conventions like shot/counter-shot dialogue. People have a single conversation at different times, in different places, yet it feels natural and smooth because a consistent mood is maintained. The cinematography was unbelievably stunning and the editing was refreshingly new. The writing was simple yet effective. My favorite line: "There's one thing I don't understand. The thing I don't understand is every motherfuckin' word you're saying." The most enduring line: "You tell him, you tell him I'm coming. Tell him I'm fucking coming!"
The beginning of the movie was quite confusing because of the stylistic choices. After a while, the style itself lost its power and grew a bit tiresome. The movie can be a bit too artsy, which can turn people off if they go in expecting a typical action movie, but I didn't mind it. What did bug me was the introduction of Peter Fonda's Terry Valentine. The use of dissolves made it look like a Calvin Klein ad. I found a lot of the acting stale and unrealistic (mostly by the women). There is a shot near the end that mirrors the opening shot, which I was really hoping they would close on. Unfortunately, they didn't.IMDb link: http://imdb.com/title/tt0165854/