Simon Baker’s stunning transformation
For many, the first thing that comes to mind when thinking of Simon Baker is The Mentalist - a lead role that established him as one of American TV’s highest paid stars.
For others, it’s Baker as the face of ANZ.
Either way, it’s easy to put a face to the name, though even some of his most hardcore fans may be surprised by the actor’s latest transformation, stepping back from Hollywood to instead embrace his passions and focus on his “creative renaissance”.
Simon’s latest project, Limbo, comes in the wake of his homegrown work with High Ground, Blaze, and adaptation of Tim Winton’s Breath - with some going so far as to call it Baker’s “career best”.
In Limbo, an outback noir written and directed by award-winning Indigenous filmmaker Ivan Sen, Baker steps into the shoes of jaded police detective and former drug squad officer Travis Hurley.
Hurley and his addictions are sent to a small community in the outback that’s surrounded by opal mines and filled with secrets - one of which is a two-decades old disappearance of an Indigenous woman that Hurley is there to investigate.
And while some of this may feel familiar to Baker’s regular audiences, the film is a far cry from what they’ve perhaps come to expect from the likes of The Mentalist, and his role even more so, with one reviewer calling his performance “hypnotically sinister”.
Sen - who took on the roles of cinematographer, composer, and editor as well - paints a black-and-white picture, and utilises known crime drama tropes without thrusting them into the faces of Limbo’s viewers.
Audiences witness the film through Hurley’s perspective, learning of what the town’s community has endured through the eyes of an ‘outsider’. As Hurley learns more about the failures of investigative authorities in the town, so too do the audience, as well as the underlying messages on the value of Indigenous life.
It’s not the first time Sen has explored this in his work, and combined with Baker’s ability to tell a story subtly, with quiet nuance and separation from stereotype, it appears a match made in movie heaven.
As Sen told The New Daily, “he has got an amazing presence.
“He can talk so well without actually having to open his mouth. I wanted to expand that within a cinematic context, so this was our chance.”
Images: Bunya Productions, Warner Bros. Television