NOW IN THEATERS! Since first enthralling the world as an aging hitman in Taken 16 years ago, Liam Neeson has played a variation of that character 16 times. It’s the gift that keeps on giving – but the man, in the words of the great Roger Murtaugh, is “getting too old for this sh*t.” Filmmaker Hans Petter Moland – who exploited that side of Neeson’s on-screen persona in 2019’s Cold Pursuit – finally allows the man to rest in the contemplative drama-cum-action-thriller Absolution. It would be blasphemous to produce another “Neeson-as-old-but-badass-motherfuck*r flick” after this one.
“I forgot where I lived for a few minutes this morning,” Neeson’s gangster muses. Throughout his career working for a heavyweight boss (Ron Perlman), he’s sustained so many injuries, his brain’s deteriorating, his memory fading. A doctor bluntly informs him that “there is no treatment, no drugs, and it’s a fairly advanced case.” With years left at most, the increasingly hapless man seeks to make amends with his daughter (Frankie Shaw), whom he abandoned, and take a stab at (perhaps not the best phrase to use in context) a relationship with an angel in human form (Yolonda Ross) who happened to wander into his life. As his condition worsens, he realizes he’s being hunted, and saving people may be his path to, drumroll, absolution.
Moland does lean too much into the grimness and self-absorption of it all. It’s an old-fashioned story, told well (save for a few awkwardly staged moments here and there), but a bit of humor would have certainly helped this old curmudgeon. A heavy sense of foreboding cloaks every desaturated shot, and every phrase is uttered with utter seriousness; an atonement must occur—it’s in the title. To quote another memorable on-screen character, “Why so serious?”
“…he’s sustained so many injuries, his brain’s deteriorating, his memory fading…”
The film hinges – a lot – on its lead performance, and thankfully Neeson delivers. One can tell the two men bonded on set previously. Neeson’s magnetism is effortless, a performance as heartbreaking and soulful as it is introverted. Sure, he’s a killing machine, but the focus here is on his inner life, his regrets, and his search for forgiveness. When he loses it in a bathroom, baring his all, we witness a Great Actor at work. His chemistry with Yolonda Ross aids matters greatly, providing for a few tender moments in a relentlessly grim tale.
Despite the familiarity, the filmmaker skillfully stages sequences that should keep both action junkies and drama queens intrigued: a painful boxing ring encounter, a reoccurring dream that takes place in a boat with Dad and a twanging engine-guitar (you heard me), a delivery-gone-awry that leads to the engrossing finale, and perhaps the film’s highlight, a restaurant scene that sees Neeson go off the deep end. You can only brood so much before your mind snaps.
As a farewell to Liam Neeson’s rather incredible streak as a gun-wielding martial arts connoisseur, Absolution gets the job done rather splendidly. It’s way too somber for a journey we’ve embarked on so many times before, yet when it works, it packs quite a wallop, and the sight of its central star (hopefully forever) shedding his established persona is alone worth the price of admission.
"…when it works, it packs quite a wallop..."
