Liam Neeson has spent the better part of this century starring in action-packed thrillers, usually as an aging badass who gets pushed too far and has to dip into his skillset to solve a problem. Some of these movies are smart and use his talents to good effect, such as The Grey or Cold Pursuit. Unfortunately, he doesn’t always choose well, sometimes slumming it in junk that only gets a wide release because his name is on it. Such is the case with his latest, the boring and absurdly derivative crime drama Absolution. Though fans will no doubt be expecting shootouts and explosions, there is very little of it. There are a few small bursts of violence, but this is mostly a straight drama about the right-hand man of a gangster who begins to rethink his life choices when he starts suffering from memory loss.
It is filled with lazy writing, clunky dialogue and thin characters. Absolution itself in an interesting, if familiar, theme for a gangster movie. The makers of Absolution (106 minutes, without the end credits) don’t seem to have any idea of how to begin to truly explore that subject. It barely gets to surface level. Even Liam Neeson can’t save this.
The protagonist (unnamed) is the loyal longtime heavy of crime boss Conner, tasked with looking after the old man’s irresponsible son and making sure his jobs go well. When he learns that CTE (he used to be a boxer) is slowly taking his memory away, he suddenly decides he must reconnect with his angry, estranged, daughter before it is too late.
That’s pretty much it. There is a subplot involving a woman he starts casually seeing after he knocks out her boyfriend at a bar and another when he discovers that someone is trying to kill him. The former has potential, but goes nowhere. The latter is predictable and only exists so Neeson can punch and shoot some people. These mostly serve as distractions that don’t connect to what the plot seems to be supposed to be about.
The real story would be this man, who has done many bad things in his life, seeking redemption by trying to be better, starting with his daughter. It approaches that concept a couple of times (in his conversations with his grandson or when he is an unwitting accomplice to human trafficking), yet there is no sense whatsoever that this guy cares about forgiveness. He doesn’t seem to regret what he’s done; he would just feel good if his daughter stopped hating him before he dies. The screenplay confuses vague platitudes about making the wrong choice for actual depth and introspection.
Neeson doesn’t seem particularly engaged with this material. There is never a moment where he seems to be attempting to lift it above what it is. This was a paycheck for him. Granted, it had to have been hard for any of the performers to find a compelling angle in this dull formula project. Ron Perlman fares the best, though he could probably play this friendly, yet menacing, gangster in his sleep. I would have liked more scenes playing off the history between his character and Neeson’s. That likely still wouldn’t have prevented this from getting deservedly forgotten, but it would have been more enjoyable than what we got.
1½ out of 5
Cast:
Liam Neeson as Thug
Frankie Shaw as Daisy
Ron Perlman as Charlie Conner
Daniel Diemer as Kyle
Yolanda Ross as Woman
Terrence Pulliam as Dre
Directed by Hans Petter Moland
Written by Tony Gayton
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