The Limb Salesman

The wildly varying reactions to this film in the few reviews already posted here seem to confirm one thing: it's why they make both chocolate AND vanilla. But I have to align myself firmly on the side of the positive postings. Three days after seeing it, I can still see many of the film's images very clearly -- and I'm already confident it's a film I'll be seeing again.

I was consistently intrigued by the world that Veninger, Granofsky & company created, and was impressed by how they managed in almost every case to turn low-budget necessities into creative virtues. I actually enjoyed the fact that we only heard about the "ice mines" and never saw them; and that we only caught glimpses of a futuristic city that didn't seem like a very nice place to visit, let alone live in.

While I still have a few unanswered questions I wouldn't have minded being clearer on, overall I found it strangely refreshing that I WASN'T being shown or told everything about this ironic, anachronistic future -- or that bizarre house, strangely suspended in both time and space -- but just enough to keep me wanting to see how the characters within it would fare. It's a kind of minimalist sci-fi that stays with you, sometimes long after the 50-million dollar CGI effects have faded from memory.

In some ways it reminded me of how I feel watching (or just thinking about) certain episodes of Rod Serling's original Twilight Zone series, and as Martha Stewart used to say, "That's a good thing".

The Limb Salesman is a small, indy film with big ambition and

unique ideas. It is the story of a drug-addicted 'limb salesman'

(Dr. Goode) living with a mechanical heart whose life changes

when he falls in love with one of this patients (Clara). Set sometime

in the late 21st century, it paints a grim and entirely plausible picture

of a frighteningly dystopia Canadian future. The world's fortunes

turn not on gold or oil but on water, and of course Canada is ripe

with that particular commodity. There is an incredible shot of the

tattered remains of a Canadian flag atop an isolated mansion in a

bleak, wintry landscape during the opening sequence of the film that

will possibly tell you more about the continued erosion of our

ecological and economic independence than dinner and a lecture

with Naomi Klein.

From a special effects point of view, it's pointless to compare the

innovations of this film to the technical achievements of sci-fi

blockbusters like the Matrix or Spiderman. These studio-fed pictures

are drawing on 100 million budgets, and Anais Granofsky clearly is

not, choosing instead to create her dystopia future in more

imaginative ways. There are some wonderfully simple devices at

work here. Everything is back lit by an endlessly blown-out sky,

always ever-so-subtly a greener shade of yellow. People speak in

hushed tones about ominous-sounding places like City and

Junction, leaving our imagination to gnaw on something a hundred

times more mysterious than the latest CGI-inspired 'world of

tomorrow.'

I love films that have the nerve to portray the future as a slightly more

mundane and ordinary version of the present, and the Limb Salesman

is no exception. Like Gilliam's Brazil, the future is less a promised land of technological gizmos and smooth, sleek surfaces than a hodgepodge of broken machines and long-dead fashions that speak to a

society desperately nostalgic for a whiff of their own past. Just ask the Hollywood studios if this is true, whose pathetic reliance on lukewarm remakes of middling and mid-century movies is barometric proof that rear view mirror-gazing is the next big thing. The Limb Salesman plays with this idea admirably, adorning the heroine in a striking union of vintage Victorian dress and Rasta Goldilocks. There is even a priceless moment when someone has enough pluck to rev up a rusty,

old gramophone for our musical enjoyment.

The use of water in the film is pure thematic genius. In my favourite scene of the film, we're left to ponder our own cold insensibility when two human

beings indulge in small thimblefuls of water with the orgiastic intensity one might reserve for the elixir of immortal life. And the brilliant irony of situating the story smack dab in the middle of an endless landscape of lethally polluted

snow resonates impressively with the plight of the Ancient Mariner:

"Water, water, everywhere...and not a drop to drink."

The cast is mostly good, with intricately understated work from Peter Stebbins and an open-hearted freshness from Ingrid Veninger. Seasoned

pros Jackie Burroughs and Clark Johnson anchor the cast with rock

solid characterizations, and Julian Richings offers up a fascinating diversion in the bowels of City.

The music and cinematography are breathtakingly beautiful, and so inextricably woven together that the composer and DOP deserve some

kind of hybrid Genie award.

If there is a problem with this film it's in the script. Too often films get made before they have finished being written, and I felt at times the Limb Salesman suffering from this fate - in the absence of a clear protagonist. The story begins and ends with the prodigiously weak-hearted Dr. Goode, but it is Clara we most care about, and it is clearly her story we are urged to follow in the early going of the film. I felt irritatingly torn between these two opposites, and

equally frustrated by the resolution of their story lines into one underlying theme of self-sacrifice. But maybe that was the filmmakers intention all along, and anyway, who quibbles over protagonist shifts when there's a dinner like this on the table?

Certainly not Quentin Tarantino.

In a snow-covered landscape? I really wanted to like this film but nearly EVERY scene dragged. Too hard to watch...

Some of you may come across this offering in Netflix: It will be cast in the Sci-Fi category. Another name may be "Limbs for Sale"

It's set in the future.

There are a few, FEW instants of Sci-Fi props. You will count them on one hand. And that will be that.

Past that-- this is a Staged Play that takes place in a Tattered Canada of the future. It involves a traveling Surgeon, a northern Water Baron, and his not quite 'on the level' family and house retainers who look like Cloned 'Lurches'.

Isolation. Bleakness. Barely controlled emotions under the surface. Family Secrets. Personal Vices. Unsuspecting innocence-- or maybe not quite as Innocent as we would believe.

In a way-- it's a kind of Victorian drama played out in the future.

Many Mainstream viewers looking for a Sci-Fi boom-Zap-Pow WILL be turned off by this. There are no fights. There isn't even a Single gun. From the set in the Old House, the sedate setting, the neo-Edwardian costumes. . .even the CARS are old 70's models.

But the point is that this is a Future CONSTRAINED by climate change. Not quite Apocalyptic, although I would somewhat disagree with the dystopian label.

If you do pull this DVD, you MUST be in the mood for something slower and low octane. This movie is more of a literary flavor than the Sci-Fi label purports. I would slot this movie for a slow, rainy Sunday Afternoon. Give it a little time-- the Actors are putting serious dark energy into their performance and their professional touch is to be appreciated. And the Ending is actually. . .poetic.

Also-- this one is Girlfriend-Friendly. She will probably still be sitting on the couch when you get up now and then to hit the fridge.

I say Give it a chance.

The Limb Salesman ROCKS!! made with love; a great cast, a strong script, an amazing Director of Photography, and a wonderfully imaginative crew of designers (set, costume, hair and make-up designers) this film stands out as one of this years most inspiring Independent Features. The cast is great; the very sexy Peter Stebbings, Ingrid Veninger whose strong performance is the center piece of the movie (the chemistry between Peter and Ingrids' characters is fantastic), and the amazing Jackie Burroughs who is always incredible to watch. Thank you Anais (the Director) for this prophetic and powerful movie about love amongst the ruins of a society on the edge of the world / a kind of post-apocalyptic 'Wizard of Oz'. May you continue to make films in Canada with exceptional Canadian Actors!!!!!

MF