Limbo (1999)
Directed by John Sayles
Traumatized by a fishing boat accident many years before, Joe Gastineau has given up his hopes for a life beyond the odd jobs he takes to support himself. That quickly changes when nomadic club singer Donna de Angelo and her troubled teen-age daughter enter Joe’s life. Both mother and daughter fall for Joe, increasing the friction between them. The tension continues to build when Joe invites them on a pleasure cruise up the Alaskan coast, discovering too late that the trip may cost them their lives.
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What critics compared Limbo to
The location’s tight connection to the story recalls John Sayles films like Limbo—the story could not be transplanted to a different setting and achieve the same result.
While the lack of closure isn’t close to what it was in John Sayles’ Limbo (which caused movie-goers to throw things at the screen in normally staid art houses), it will cause consternation.
Nevertheless, those who openly hissed at John Sayles' Limbo or declared the finale of The Sopranos to be a tease will not be pleased by how No Country for Old Men elects to wrap up its diverse storylines.
Personally, I like open-ended movies - they have more of a "real life" feeling to them - but I recognize that some people can't stand them (at a screening I attended of John Sayles' Limbo - arguably the most open-ended film of all time - distressed audience members threw things at the screen when the closing credits began to roll).
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British Columbia substituted for Alaska in the filming of Insomnia, but Christopher Nolan makes better use of the landscape than even John Sayles in Limbo, another film in which the Alaskan wilderness narrates the story.