Liam Neeson has recently stated that he may be slowly retiring and stepping away from being the action bad-ass he’s dawned the mantle for since Taken, and with his latest – Absolution, it may be for the best. This is not to say that it is a bad movie, but with his age it is roughly the right time to stop kicking ass and taking names and focus on doing some more suitable fitting roles for his new stage of life – something Absolution actually handles incredibly well. Neeson playing an aging enforcer, suffering from a neurological disease the movie itself is riddled with clichés bu the direction from Hans Petter Moland more than makes up for the rather formulaic screenplay.
The movie focuses on Neeson, who is an unnamed enforcer – he’s just that though, a rough Boston enforcer whose slowly trying to step away but his former associates and boss will simply not let him go and resume life living amongst the Boston citizens. He is diagnosed with chronic traumatic encephalopathy, which if you do not have a medical degree is a neurodegenerative disease and is slowly destroying his mind. While there isn’t an exact pinpoint as to what was the catalyst of causing this but a life time of being a thug and getting into fights certainly doesn’t help. While this new diagnosis leaves Neeson with some loose ends to tie and makes him honestly look at his life and realize he’s not always been the best person, nor father, and is now trying to make things right with his daughter Daisy (Frankie Shaw) and the grandson he never got to know Dre (Terrence Pulliam).
Neesons’s gangster worked for a kingpin in the underground named Charlie Conner (Ron Perlman) who fronted as a furniture salesman. He knows not to question the jobs he’s assigned to as he know’s he’s essentially a replaceable heavy, but when he gets partnered with Charlie’s moronic son Kyle (Daniel Diemer) who just wants to make his dad proud but is too dumb to fall in line and stay out of trouble, things get very messy and uneven for our leading heavy.
While the film is partial father righting his wrongs story and failing gangster trying to escape the life he had, it’s the same movie we’ve seen a thousand times before. There is nothing entirely new or interesting that this has to say, but the performances and direction are what at least keep the audience engaged in the dwindling interest of these Neeson lead action(less) pieces and nothing like the Taken – Non-Stop set pieces we’ve seen. However, the actor is 72 years old, its refreshing to see him knowing his limits and this being sort of the send of letter works, just could’ve been executed better.
While the script proved to not be captivating, Liam Neeson being the action star with a heart and conscious is a nice change of pace and reminds audiences that he was not always the rigid action star. There is such a nuance and lifeblood to his performance that was truly welcomed, while Frankie Shaw and Terrence Pulliam area also great in their respective roles, with the former being really grounded and hesitant bringing a harsh reality and modesty to the role. Perlman is criminally underutilized in his role and Daniel Diemer doesn’t leave that much of an impression, but overall the leading performance and direction from Moland makes Absolution a worthy send off from the action series, if Neeson chooses to make this his action swan song.
