Retribution

Director: Nimrod Antal

Cast: Liam Neeson, Noma Dumezweni, Embeth Davidtz, Matthew Modine

Genre:  Action/thriller

When you utter the term "action," some actors' faces pop into your head because they are so closely related to action movies. One of the actors in the movie business who plays non-stop action roles is Liam Neeson. Neeson is well known for the action film "Taken." He's still making action flicks in his 70s. His most recent film "Retribution" is full of tension because it contains more suspense than action, which is sure to drive you crazy.

Neeson portrays Matt Turner, an American investment banker in Berlin, in his most recent movie, "Retribution," which is a remake of a 2015 Spanish thriller of the same name. Matt discovers he is sitting on a bomb while driving his teenage son and daughter to school one day. The bomb will go off if Matt stops the car, tries to get out, or disobeys the orders of the unidentified person on the other end of his smartphone. These orders include traveling between locations, during which Matt observes a series of vehicle explosions that result in the deaths of several of his coworkers and gradually becomes implicated in them. The attractively tenacious, no-nonsense Europol detective on his pursuit is played by Noma Dumezweni.

 

So far, so predictable, at least in the broad strokes of a tale about a man who is, shall we say, under pressure. Because Matt is emotionally distant and there are clues of potential financial dishonesty, Matt's wife is also thinking about divorcing him. Matt doesn't have "a very particular set of skills" like many of Liam Neeson's characters do, as Bryan Mills, the actor's murderous character in "Taken," put it. Matt is intelligent and has a driver's license. Perhaps that's sufficient.

One can tell that Matt is afraid and unsure of how to handle the situation as the movie progresses, but he tries to remain calm and convince his kids to do the same. The fact that Matt's children are present in the vehicle keeps him from taking an audacious position. As soon as his kids are safely out of the car, he flees the agency's ambush and uses all of his strength to track down the tormentor and exact the justice he deserves.

The movie's plot was well-established. The movie's events were all shown in chronological order, which made the plot simpler to comprehend. The movie didn't have any pointless twists. The audience expects that from sage directors. Instead of making the plot needlessly complicated, the problem is solved as the movie reaches its climax and discloses items that have been waiting to be revealed.

 

In addition to "The Commuter" in 2018 and "Non-Stop" in 2014, Neeson has collaborated with producers Andrew Rona and Alex Heineman on three more projects. The director of those two movies (as well as "Unknown" and "Run All Night"), Jaume Collet-Serra, now serves as producer. Even though it can be comforting to watch Neeson and his regular team members perform their duties repeatedly, something the actor has been doing for the past 15 years, the overall operation feels more like a well-oiled machine than it does like a living, breathing thing.

 

-Sajid Ali

 

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