In the film, The Limey, there are different sound motifs that are used to help tell the narrative of the story and give the audience cues to how the action or character is related to the sound. Music or sounds help the audience associate and connect certain scenes with their implicit meaning. Wilson’s love for his daughter joined with a regret over lost time that might have, or should have been spent with her, leaves him bound to investigate and avenge her untimely death. “Tell me about Jenny”, is Wilson’s quest to find out what happened to Jenny and his quest causes the narration and action in this film. Wilson’s memories (flashbacks) of Jenny are what keeps him driven in his search for answers.
The reoccurring sound motifs in this film are wind chimes, the sounds of the ocean (waves), Wilson’s humming and a unique melody of piano music. These reoccurring sound motifs aid the audience’s understanding of the film’s non chronological temporal order of the story. The film uses different sounds during flashbacks to help add or reveal new information to the viewer about Wilson’s past and the film’s scenes that occur out of the story’s chronological order. The flashbacks are used to create suspense and intrigue in the narration by gradually revealing the entire events of the story.
The piano music motif is associated with Wilson’s quest for the truth about Jenny’s death. The piano music is used for different purposes throughout the film. One use of the piano music is to cue the audience that important information is being revealed usually during flashbacks about Jenny. The piano music is also played at different parts of the narration to cue the audience that the action that is occurring in that scene has direct cause and effect to what is going to happen next. For example, the piano music is playing in the background when Wilson is buying two guns in the park. The music is cueing the audience that the two guns are going to play a major role in the upcoming scenes. Another example of the piano music aiding the viewer to understand that something is about to happen to Wilson is the scene he is almost assassinated by two assailants who were hired to kill him because he is investigating the death of his daughter. A slower, more dramatic version of the piano music plays in the background (non-diegetic) of the scene before he is almost killed. The piano music changes speed and tone right before the two thugs try to kill him in a way to cue the viewer something big is about to happen. The piano music is also used to create suspense and drama in the film. The scene with Wilson and Valentine fighting at the end of the film, the piano music is played to give the scene a more intense and dramatic feeling. At the end of this scene, Wilson finally gets the truth about happened to Jenny. The piano music and the sounds of the waves are played during a series of flashbacks that enlighten the audience of what really happened to Jenny. In-between these flashbacks, there are close-ups of Wilson’s face showing he is connecting what had happened to her with his past. The use of the piano music is the way the film stresses to the viewer that this scene is important to understanding the overall story and Wilson’s quest to find answers.
The sounds of the ocean motif are used to foreshadow upcoming events in the story. For example, the viewer hears the sounds of waves when Wilson is daydreaming of killing Valentine at his party. The sounds of the waves are an example of nonsimultaneous sound used in a sonic flashback. The audience later understands the sounds of waves in this scene when Wilson finally confronts Valentine at the beach in Big Sur. The sound of the waves represents the time in the narration when Wilson (and the viewer) finally gets the answers he is seeking about Jenny’s death.
The repeating sound motifs of the wind chimes, Wilson’s humming, and waves are used when Wilson is remembering through flashbacks, his past when Jenny was just a young child. The flashbacks are used to reinforce the narrative about Wilson’s past relationship with his daughter. The wind chimes, humming, and waves influence the viewer’s perception of time. These sounds are associated with past memories that happened long before the film’s story starts.
The implicit meaning of these sound motifs is that Wilson is trying to find out why his daughter died and if he is in some way responsible for it. Because Wilson was a career criminal, his daughter tried to keep him from committing crimes by threatening to call the police and turn him in. Jenny used this tactic many times when she was a child living with her father. Jenny was trying to keep her father from going to prison. Wilson discovers that Jenny used this tactic with Valentine to stop him from going down the same criminal path as her father. Through fragmented flashbacks, the viewer learns that she caught on to Valentine’s illegal activity and that her “accidental” death by car crash may have been an indirect result of this knowledge. Soderbergh creates an historical balance between past/present and Valentine/Wilson with identical scenes of Jenny as a young girl threatening to expose her father’s criminal activity and the older Jenny in a similar situation with Valentine (holding a telephone in both cases). Valentine didn’t know that Jenny wasn’t going to turn him in but was just using the same empty threat she used with her father but Valentine ends up killing Jenny. The story aids in the audience’s perception (implicit meaning) that because Wilson was a criminal and Jenny didn’t want to lose her father to prison, this leads to her death and the cover-up of her murder. The closer Wilson gets to the truth, the more he comes to realize his responsibility from his own complicity as an absent father in his daughter’s death.

Bibliography
• Bordwell, D., & Thompson, K. (2010). Film art: An introduction. New York: McGraw-Hill
• Hardy, John, Scott Kramer, Steven Soderbergh, Terence Stamp, Lesley Ann Warren, Luis Guzmán, Barry Newman, et al. 2000. The Limey. Santa Monica, Calif: Artisan Home Entertainment.