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Love in Limbo is a light-hearted look into what used to be. With the old FJ Holdens and Studebakers rumbling around in the background, combined with the highly defined “Black Music” pumping the sounds of the fifties, Love in Limbo defies any strict genre definition. The term ‘nostalgic comedic drama’ comes to mind, which really outlines the film’s versatility in terms of entertainment.

Basic Outline

Ken also has companions on his journey, Barry McJannet (Aden Young) and Arthur Baskin (Russell Crowe) who Ken and Barry open up from frigid, un-humoured perfectionist, to lovable, shy larrikin after an evening “on the piss”. Together they collectively decide to lose their virginity by going to a brothel on Kalgoorlie’s infamous Red Light street. 

Meanwhile, Gwen has gotten herself involved with the local ‘Casanova’, Max Wiseman (Martin Sacks) with which she also has a business deal. The result is a warm light comedy, with drama elements, all the while being backed with the nostalgic look on the life that was 1957.

Key Points (Detailed Synopsis)

The movie starts with the audience watching Ken Riddle (Craig Adams) and his obsession with sex. He watches the lady next door getting undressed from his window, draws females in their naked form from memory and fantasises about his high school teacher.

Due to this obsession with the female form, Ken is seen holding a lucrative business at school in selling drawn pictures of naked ladies, which he doctored from the models on the sewing patterns belonging to his mother, Gwen (Rhondda Findleton).

However, his teacher finds out about Ken’s enterprise, after a tip-off from Ken’s twin sister Ivy (Maya Stange). Ken is promptly sent to the principal and in the company of his mother, expelled for that and undisclosed past transgressions.

Not knowing what to do with her son, Gwen sends him to see her brother, Ken’s Uncle Herbert (Bill Young) so he can give Ken the “Birds and the Bees” speech, for Ken’s dad was killed in the recent World War II.

The speech doesn’t go according to Uncle Herbert’s plan and Ken ends up telling his uncle more than what he knows, including the fine art of self-pleasure. (Enter gratuitous hand gesture here)

Meanwhile, it turns out Uncle Herbert owns a clothing company, to which Ken goes to work for in the stores branch. It’s here that Ken meets the “anally-retentive” 21 year old Arthur Baskin (Russell Crowe) who is the Stores Manager and very pernickety about the way things are done. Ken also befriends Mrs Costanides, who kind of takes Ken under her wing in his first few days in the company.

Enter Max Wiseman (Martin Sacks) who is the company’s Lead Salesman and the local gigolo. He befriends young Ken and introduces him to the world of the “smooth operator” and gives him a lift home.

Max then meets Gwen for the first time, who is just on her way out on a date with the much older Cyril Williams (Vincent Ball) wearing a dress of her own design. (It turns out later Gwen studied design at college before “children and the war” interrupted plans for a career) Max instantly takes a liking to Gwen and her dress design and later creates a deal with her to start her own dress label, with Max as her partner.

Ken then meets Barry McJanet (Aden Young) when he starts working under Arthur in the stores. Barry is a real “larrikin” and quickly gets up to mischief with Ken in tow. They constantly victimize Arthur by harassing him, telling him jokes he wouldn’t understand and generally doing the opposite of what he says.

One of the pranks they pull on Arthur is “The old fake-snake-in-the-pie trick”, whereby they put a fake plastic snake in Arthur’s daily lunchtime pie, expecting to “scare the heck” out of Arthur. However, it backfires and the pie ends up in the possession of Mrs Costanides, after Arthur is asked to have lunch with the boss (Uncle Herbert) and gives his pie away to her.

Ken and Barry realise the mistake at the last minute, but are still too late to grab the pie in time. Mrs Costanides takes a big bite from the pie, finds the snake and almost has a heart attack. She immediately goes after the absent Arthur, but Ken confesses it was he who put the snake in the pie, so now she looks to beat Ken up and chases him around the room. Ken, having previously fallen in “love-at-first-sight” with Mrs Costanides’ daughter, Helene, is now denied any further developments with her (she was baking him biscuits before) because Mrs Costanides no longer thinks highly of him, thinking he is a “trouble maker”.

Ken goes with Barry to buy a car, a beat up F’ series Holden for 60 quid. Barry has only 50 quid saved, however, so Ken chips in the last ten. Ken also develops a thing for Ivy’s best friend Maisie, so Ken tries to convince her to go on a double date to the drive-in picture theatre with him and Barry in their new car. Maisie agrees, on the provision that Ivy comes along as well. Ken convinces Barry to take Ivy, with the promise of some “action”. The evening itself ends in frustration for the Riddles, with Ivy too shy to go anywhere near Barry, so Barry makes a move for Maisie, who was dancing with Ken until he tripped over, got a blood nose and was made fun of by some other guy, who Barry threatened to beat up if he did not shut up, which ended with Barry dancing with Maisie who thought he was a hero and Ivy dancing alone. Cut to a scene in the car, with Barry and Maisie making out in the back seat and twin brother and sister alone and frustrated in the front. Ken harbours no ill-feeling toward Barry, who is dumped by Maisie not long after anyway.

Ken and Barry then find out its Arthur’s 21^st birthday, so they try to convince him to take them out to buy a round of beers. He sees straight through the ploy (the fact that he can now buy alcohol and they can not) and tells them to leave him to his work. As Barry and Ken are reversing their car out of work, who should be standing behind them but Arthur, with two beers in his hands, looking hopeful to the boys. What pursues is many beers and many laughs, as the three bond the only way men know how… Beer and drunken stupor.

Things are a bit more relaxed around the stores after that night, with Arthur becoming quite the practical joker himself. However things are still not rosy between Ken and Mrs Costanides. Meanwhile, Gwen had psyched herself up for a big business meeting with Max and some important people at a fancy restaurant. Max picks her up and together they go to the restaurant. She soon learns, however, that Max has set up the evening as something a bit more intimate between just the two of them and quickly gives Max an earful. For once Max is beaten by one of his “interests” and he is falling in love with it.

At this point, the boys decide to take the trip out to Kalgoorlie, to collectively lose their virginity at a brothel. Of they go, in the old Holden, with a wad of cash, big smiles and good intentions. We see at this point that Gwen allows Max to take her out, after his previous indiscretion and the pair closely bond and form the beginnings of a relationship. This is further from the minds of the boys who, after breaking down, arrive at a brothel in the wee hours of the morning.

After nervously investigating the place, Ken and Barry go inside lead by the insistent owner/proprietor of the establishment. Arthur stays behind to “mind the car”. Barry gets straight to work and Ken, after some “hiccups” with the workers feuding in front of them, loses his virginity as well.

The two get back in the car and off they go, homeward, when they are stopped by the local policeman, who informs them that the car they are driving is stolen and that they are not allowed to go in further in it. Cut to a scene with them waiting for a train at the train station and Arthur singing “Amazing Grace”.

The movie starts to wrap up, with Arthur and Max playing a joke on Ken. Pretending to be a doctor, Max tells Ken that he might have syphilous, while Barry is outside, writing to the prostitute he had, declaring his love for her. After much stress Ken figures out it is Max playing a joke on him, but unfortunately finds a bouquet of flowers from Max, to his mother. Ken assumes the worst, that his mother is now a target of the self-confessed womaniser.

The final scene is the company Christmas party, where Max and Gwen are premiering their new line of clothing designs. However, there is still animosity between Ken and Max. Ken asks his mother to dance and is cut in by Max, at which point Ken resolves himself to the fact that this could be love for Max. Max then points out a lone figure across the room, Helene, Mrs Costanides’ daughter, to which Ken goes to walk over to her, when he is absconded by Mrs Costanides’ Husband and a group of heavies. They pick Ken up and whisk him outside.

Meanwhile, Barry and Maisie have hooked up again and are seen dancing, as well as Arthur and Ivy. At the beginning of the scene, Arthur took one look at Ivy and fell in love instantly. Ken has bigger problems at this point, as Mr Costanides asks whether Ken was responsible for the snake in Mrs Costanides’ pie. Ken confesses at which point the group crack up laughing and Mr Costanides tells Ken that when Mrs Costanides told him the story, he had never laughed so much.

The group wander back inside, just in time for the slow dance. Ken dances with Helene and they both look happy. Max and Gwen are dancing together, as well as Arthur and Ivy, who clumsily kiss each other. Barry and Maisie are dancing closely and they look happy, when the prostitute that Barry wrote the letter for walks in and gives him a big kiss with his letter in her hand. Maisie doesn’t look impressed, as Barry wonders what to do at this point. Cut to Ken kissing Helene…

Cut to Credits.

Please Note that, although quite detailed, this synopsis only covers the main plot line of the film. Love in Limbo also contains a lot of very funny and witty sub-plots and events that were not included in this description. 

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