In Limbo, two angels hold a court style proceeding over the fate of a soul

Limbo puts the concept of eternal judgment into a court style proceeding

Limbo comes to us from Uncork’d Entertainment. The cast has a lot of familiar faces if they aren’t household names and the premise is simple. A man, who has just died, must face judgment for the way he lived his life.

There were many ways that Limbo could have gone wrong but writer/director Mark Young (Feral) struck a great balance between the comical elements in the film and the serious elements. The cast also sells you on the premise and keeps you invested from start to finish.

Our main cast is played by Lew Temple (The Devil’s Rejects), Lucian Charles Collier (Spaceship), and Scottie Thompson (12 Monkeys, NCIS). Other familiar faces include Peter Jacobson (Colony), Richard Riehle (Casino, Office Space), and James Purefoy (The Following, Rome).

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Lew plays the man who is to be judged, Jimmy. You can tell from scene one that he’s a sketchy character who has been in the system and you learn very quickly that the act that ended his life makes him a prime candidate for hell.

Lucian’s character is the lawyer/angel that has been sent to go over his case and make a decision. He’s burned out from doing this job for so long and sees this one as open and shut. That is until Scottie’s character shows up. She’s in all-white and you can tell she is new to the job but she’s been sent to defend Jimmy and try to get him into heaven.

Limbo achieves its goal

With the idea behind Limbo being to create a grounded and gritty version of the space between heaven and hell, complete with angels and demons, it would have been easy to get this movie wrong. However, the movie was done in a smart way. The only visually odd elements were that the demons had horns but they weren’t too difficult to look at. In the dialogue, there was casual talk about historical figures that were in hell but those just made the idea behind the movie feel real.

Limbo will make you think before you pass judgment over another person

What really makes Limbo work is the pacing. The two lawyers call witnesses, the witnesses (people from Jimmy’s past that are deceased) are brought out by a demon to testify as to who he was to them. Some of these witnesses get a reaction from Jimmy but all add depth to him as a man and you begin to see the complexities of his life through flashbacks.

You may even start to feel sorry for him at certain points. It will feel weird to feel sympathy for JImmy because you will have seen the crime that ended his life early in the film. You go on a roller coaster ride with the angels and there are breaks between witnesses to add layers to their stories as well.

Limbo makes you think about how difficult it is to judge a person based on the only thing you know about them without getting a full picture. Humans are usually never completely good or completely bad and this is on full display in this movie.

Elements of Limbo that may not work for some

Limbo is rated by Amazon Prime Video as 13+ for language, violence, mild sexual references, and depictions of drug use. That sounds like a lot but there is only one scene of violence that could be considered graphic, no nudity, and the drug references are spoken or shown through paraphernalia laying around. No more than you’d see on a cable television show.

In one scene, the demon played by Richard Riehle is telling Jimmy about the different forms of torture that the demons get into and really paints a picture.

Limbo gets my stamp of approval

Limbo was an interesting movie. It kept me guessing from start to finish and made me laugh out loud at different points. While Jimmy didn’t seem redeemable, you and the characters (including Jimmy) spend the movie trying to figure out why God might feel that he is. You keep waiting for something to come out that makes this whole ordeal make sense.

In the end, you get a very satisfying payoff on this storyline with a twist I didn’t see coming, before another twist that changes the way you’ll see the movie itself. The payoff was well worth the wait in my opinion and the ending was paramount to getting this film a positive rating from me.

If you like mysteries and aren’t put off by the fantastical elements I described, then Limbo is a safe movie to add to your watchlist.

Limbo is available on DVD and available to rent on VOD platforms.