Kerry Condon, so terrific as Siobhán in last year’s Banshees of Inisherin, fires on all cylinders here as the IRA gang leader Doireann. She embodies the crazed venom of fanaticism and has a murderous presence you would cross several streets to avoid. It’s a mesmerizing performance, albeit one weighed down with a superfluity of profanity that works against the total control Condon evinces.
Finbar seems a sensitive soul whom we root for despite his awful past. He gives the impression of being broken by his wife’s death, long misled into a life that doesn’t reflect who he is despite his deadly proficiency. He is refined, as shown by his love for the artisanal shotgun he uses for his work and his horror at killing a singer at the film’s opening. The character is perfectly conveyed in Neeson’s haunted features.
The dangers of Finbar’s attempts at redemption are epitomized by his awkward ardor for his neighbor and possible romantic interest, Rita (Niamh Cusack), who stands to be leverage against him if the IRA comes looking.
“…a genre film treading expertly around a pretty disastrous chapter in Anglo-Irish history.”
Neeson seems to oscillate between low-brow revenge thrillers and sublime art. You wouldn’t place this film in either category, and it is a refreshing departure, harking back to his earlier movies like Lamb and Crossing the Line. It feels like a gang of Irish filmmakers have somehow winkled money out of Hollywood to put together a modest, local film that isn’t exasperatingly prosaic for a change. What we have here is a nicely lurid thriller thrown together in a world not often parsed into this kind of adventure, and it works. The action, in particular, is assured, capturing the grit and confusion of hard violence.
In The Land of Saints and Sinners is a genre film treading expertly around a pretty disastrous chapter in Anglo-Irish history. It is a mark of the skill of all involved that its story respects how raw it all still is on one hand while ignoring the pitfall of being stiflingly earnest on the other.
Not the greatest thriller of recent years, but far better than most. It is especially welcome for presenting a beautiful and seldom seen region of Ireland and taking the time and energy to do so with genuine popular appeal to an international audience. I hope it finds one.
"…treading expertly around a pretty disastrous chapter in Anglo-Irish history"
