LeonLouisRicci This is one of those interesting, but unsatisfying, Movies with a very short running time that seems pasted together and released without much faith or confidence. There just isn't enough time to develop the many characters and things unfold with a choppy and vague exposition.The performances are all fine and the drug addicted cop played by Claire Forlani is superb. Lauren Bacall is also quite believable as an elderly lady with wit and dignity. The film is let down only in it's inability to flesh out the story and deliver it with coherent and cognitive observations.What is here is pretty compelling but what is left out is baffling. It plays like an unfinished throw-away or a mangled manuscript that needs a fix. Too bad.

lewwarden This is a very interesting and entertaining picture. I, normally sceptical about such ventures, thought much more highly of this one than did the other well-thought out commentators. Claire Forlani's performance, all agree, was superb. But I, having practiced law for many years in the San Francisco Bay Area courts and having had some experience young heroin addicts, including addicted friends of clients, and having seen addicts on the nod in open court and in early withdrawal, was astonished by Forlani's performance. In one scene I watched closely as she seemingly involuntarily trembled the index finger of one hand while going through her apparently agonizing facial and body contortions. I tried to make my index finger tremble thusly, but no way. How did she "act" so on the edge? At the time I wondered what this actress was like in real life. Were her sly, even crafty yet fearful glances a natural characteristic? Hell of a performance!! But, without being a spoiler, did you all miss the scene where Forlani first became addicted? Other commentators tended to put down Lauren Bacall's performance by contrast, but it too was superb. Her seemingly ill-acted more or less stoic performance that drew some criticism in fact was fully in character as was revealed in the closing scenes. She too was playing a game for high stakes, although just how she came to be a player rather than an innocent bystander was obscure to me. I'll have to watch this one again.True, the flashbacks and flash forwards were disconcerting at first -- such devices usually are -- but these were introduced with a flash of light which happily -- at least to me -- announced their advent.Good job all around, actors, writers, directors. I could even hear what the actors were saying for a change -- no mumbling or sound track blasting away the dialogue -- although at my age I much prefer subtitles.Lew Warden Join The Howard Beale Memorial Society. Celebrate Network. (http://www.networkcentralca.net) And check out Loose Ends at http://www.aventuraproductions.net

jotix100 "The Limit", which is also known as "Gone Dark", has some interesting casting that made it attractive to watch. Alas, this story about an undercover agent that has develops an appetite for using drugs, doesn't go anywhere. The director, Lewin Webb relies in the use of flashbacks to clarify the plot, but unfortunately, that device doesn't seem to work well.In fact, the film doesn't make much sense in the way that an older lady, May, knowing something fishy is going on with her neighbor Denny, and not acting on her instincts. Or for that matter, the nosy neighbors, who should have been suspicious as to what was going on with Denny in the apartment next door, keep on turning at May's door, but don't go to the police soon enough to have the goings on investigated. When May hears the shot that turns out to have killed Denny, she doesn't even bat a false eyelash, which in a way, doesn't make sense. In fact, May is the victim of the undercover Monica, Denny's girlfriend, who knows the older woman is the key for getting back the incriminating evidence about his demise."The Limit" asks a lot from the viewer. The premise is not bad, but Mr. Webb, the director and the writer of the screen play, Matt Holland, once they set things in motion, they appear as though they don't know what to do with it.Basically, we watch the film on the strength of the cast. Lauren Bacall, as May, doesn't have much to do. Claire Forlani, who is the key figure has some good moments. Pete Postlethwaite, a magnificent English character actor and Henry Czerny, are equally bogged down by a story that doesn't let them shine, as they usually do.

sol1218 (Some Spoilers) A somewhat confused movie with a load of flashbacks that make you at times unaware if your in the past or present. It's Claire Forlani's performance as the undercover policewoman Monica that makes the film "Gone Dark" or "The Limit" more then worth watching.Inflitrating "the Crew", a big city drug gang, Monica wins over the confidence of her boss Gale Carmody, Pete Poslethwilte,to the point where he lets her use his van for hours at a time to get "The Crew" lunch and dinner. Carmdy doesn't realize that Moni, as she's called by him , uses it to get in contact with the FBI that she's working with to get the goods on him. Moni also got addicted to heroin due to the stress of working undercover. One of "the Crew" members Eight-Ball, Billy Koury, is suspected by Gale to have ripped off 40 kilo's of "The Crew's" heroin and Moni is given the task to collect it from him. Almost getting killed "The Crew's" second in command Danny,Henry Czrney, come to Moni's rescues that make her totally trust him. Later when she finds out, from Danny, that he's also working for the Feds to set up Gale and his gang she moves in with him. What Moni later finds out is that Danny set up Eight-Ball to take the blame for the missing heroin.The movie starts out with May, Lauren Bacall, a resident at Moni and Danny's apartment house being told by the police that her next door neighbor, Danny,was found shot and killed and if she knew anything about the shooting. It turned out that May mistakenly got a number of letters and packages that were sent to Danny. Those letters and packages turned out to have valuable information about "The Crew" and Gale's involvement with the local Russian Mafia as well as Moni's undercover activities in Gale's organization. Moni trying to get her hands on the letters and packages at May's apartment gets very friendly with her in order to gain access to her place and get the important documents but as it turned out it would be a lot harder then she first thought. "Gone Dark" tells it's story with a number of flashbacks as Moni slowly starts to disintegrates due to her heroin addiction and desperately needing a quick fix. Moni who had all the cards, and gun, at the start of the film begins to lose her grip on May and goes into a gut wrenching withdrawal from her desperate need for a heroin load that by the time the movie is about over she's completely out of it. There's also "the Crew" waiting for her downstairs, they already found that she's FBI, and the only thing left for her is to violently die from severe heroin withdrawal syndrome or the end of the barrel of her 9mm automatic.A lot of twists and turns in "Gone Dark" that keep the movies storyline going but they do come together and show the audience how the whole story set itself up in flashback in May's apartment with Moni waiting for the end to finally come. A number of double-crosses on both sides, the crew's members Danny and the police and FBI, put Moni in a position where she was left out to dry all by herself. May who at first seemed unaware of what what's happening with the mail for Danny that she mistakenly got turned out to be very well informed of both Danny activities as well as her health coach Brian(Joris Jarsky),who was always coming over to look after her, from the mail that she got from Danny. The movie slowly shows Moni fall apart from her addiction to and need for heroin as well as her betrayal by the FBI and Danny. In one of the most shocking demonstrations of a suffering drug addict ever, far more convincing then the famous one with Frank Sinatra in "The Man with the Golden Arm", Forlina's acting is so unnerving and believable that you almost want to run to the nearest phone to call 911 to get her help. Forlina more then holds her own against,in fact she easily eclipses, the legendary Lauren Bacall in every scene she's in with her in the movie.