Limb Salesman, The

Canada • 2004 • 80m •

• Directed by: Anais Granofsky. • Starring: Peter Stebbings, Ingrid Veninger, Clark Johnson, Charles Officer, Jackie Burroughs, Ryan Francoz, Stan Granofsky, Geoff Murrin, Jim Murrin, Julian Richings, Delphine Roussel, Jennifer Rowsom, Jacob Switzer. • Music by: John Welsman.

Gabriel Goode, a doctor specializing in limb regeneration, travels from the decrepit metropolis of 'City' to the barren regions of the north. His assignment: heal the invalid daughter of a wealthy, but morally corrupt, water exporter. He arrives at the family's mining compound with his own past haunting him. There, Gabriel risks everything in order to confront his darkness and find his heart.

Review:

This strange indie Canadian dystopia is set in the far future, where all the water has frozen solid into snow and has become as valuable as pure gold. Now, I'm going to just ignore the blatant fact that snow IS water and in essence that this future land has plenty more than any of the characters realize, and just state that The Limb Salesman is more of a character-driven than a plot-driven story. The trouble is, some of the characters are just so two-dimensional that it's just not possible to connect with or even care about them, save for Julian Richings as the nameless weirdo (listed in the credits as "Contact") who skulks around in what is like the late 21st Century version of Pleasures N' Treasures. Although he plays the role of a creep, Richings pretty much rescues the whole film from just being a waste. I particularly disliked Ingrid Veninger as the needy and isolated legless Clara Fielder. Her voice is flat and she is very unmemorable as a character. Dr. Goode is okay as a character, but for the main character he's quite boring. I would say that Jackie Burroughs did a decent acting job as the grandmother who seems to be a doppelganger of Minnie Castavette from 'Rosemary's Baby', but because of the audio quality, some of her lines are impossible to make out.

There's also a lot of weird fetish-type stuff in this film, to the point where it just comes off as unnecessary and sick. It takes away from the story and just makes everything seem perverted. A lot of subtle hints to transgender prostitutes being locked up for "use", lewd and vulgar language, partial nude shots that seemed bizarre and out-of-place, and just odd stuff like, for example, Clara getting "excited" when the doctor is examining her to give her the new legs. Very weird.

Despite complaints I'd heard about this film not being "high-tech" enough, I think that given the budget that the producers had to work with, they made good use of it. However consistency in the story maybe could have done with some revision. My big issue with this film was the ending, if you can even call it that. It just sort of drops off. Doctor Goode starts dying and Clara brings him to the Contact's shop to hide. The Contact has a change of heart and decides to leave and seek out medical help for Goode upon Clara's pleading, and then it shows Goode on a tropical beach (my guess is that he died), but for a film that boasts beautiful drama, a woman sitting with her dying doctor on the floor of a seedy store with no real explanation of what's going on, seems like a pretty sorry ending. Also the subplot with the revolting water miners seems like it could've been explored a lot further than it was.

All in all this film isn't terrible, that is to say, I've definitely seen worse, but it's not really the dramatic and alluring masterpiece that it claims to be. It's kind of fun if you like those "so bad it's good" type films, or weird, obscure Canuck stories.

Review by TheBlueHairedLawyer from the Internet Movie Database.

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