BEFORE: Since I can't wait for the sequel "Shaun the Sheep: Farmageddon", I had to find another way to link out of a movie with very little star power - but Andy Nyman carries over to today's film, he may have a minor role but even those count. I can't even watch all my Liam Neeson films here, two will have to do, because I need the film "Mark Felt: The Man Who Brought Down the White House" to serve as my lead-in to a documentary chain in June. Oh, yeah, this year's documentary chain is going to focus on mainly politics and celebrity. For politics, I've got no shortage of material, with portraits of everyone from Ruth Bader Ginsberg to Ed Koch to Roger Stone, and then for celebrity I've got docs about Robin Williams, Richard Pryor, Joan Rivers, Michael Jackson and even Fred Rogers - so there's all that to look forward to in just a few months.
THE PLOT: An insurance salesman/ex-cop is caught up in a criminal conspiracy during his daily commute home.
AFTER: It seems odd, I know, to follow-up an animated film about farm animals with an action-thriller about fighting criminals on a train - but believe it or not, the two films start off almost exactly the same way, with a montage of people going about their daily routines. "Shaun the Sheep" showed the farmer, his dog, and the sheep waking up, brushing teeth, shaving, combing hair/fur, commuting through the pasture, and "The Commuter" has a montage of Liam Neeson's character and his family, you guessed it, waking up, brushing teeth, shaving, getting dressed, eating breakfast, and commuting to the train to NYC. I just never know when I'm going to hit one of these odd little coincidences.
But really, if "Non-Stop" was just "Taken" on a plane, then this is "Taken" on a train. The "Taken" franchise was apparently so super-successful that Liam Neeson can just star in every possible iteration of a similar plot - to the point where his film "Cold Pursuit", released earlier this year, was referred to as "Taken" on a snow-plow. Seriously? And more to the point, am I going to find myself watching that next year when it hits premium cable?
But I think just lumping this film in with those other Liam Neeson action films does it something of a disservice, because this one turned out to be very twisty, in a good way, full of suspense and a good dose of "What is REALLY happening here?" Neeson plays an ex-cop who's just been fired for no apparent reason from his job as an insurance salesman, and then when he's on the commuter train heading home (upstate NY again, Tarrytown this time) he's contacted by a mysterious stranger, sort of Hitchcock-style, telling him that he can earn some much-needed cash if he can use his investigative skills to find the ONE person on the train who "doesn't belong" and has something that "isn't theirs" stashed in their bag. The only other clues he has are that the person goes by the nickname "Prynne" and is scheduled to get off the train at a particular stop.
At first, he's not keen to do someone else's dirty work - but then the mysterious handlers imply very strongly that his wife and kids are in danger. So even though he's sure that whoever's hiring him is up to no good, what choice does he really have? Even if this puts some stranger in danger, he can't risk the lives of his family members, so he's got to at least play along. But any attempt to get a message to the police, even his close friend on the force, puts others in danger - so that means that there must be someone on the train who's in on it, and they're watching his every move, and reporting back to someone.
Conspiracies are everywhere, if you're looking for them, and nearly everyone is a suspect or is acting shady in some way. Well, this is New York, so that tracks. But somewhere among the regular, day-to-day heroes and criminals who commute to NYC is someone who's REALLY gone above and beyond to be really good, or possibly really bad. Who can tell the difference any more? And how is he supposed to narrow a trainload full of suspects down to just one? This isn't "Murder on the Orient Express", after all, and the train's not stuck in a snowbank, it's constantly moving upstate at a good clip, and time is ticking away.
I've got to call a NITPICK POINT on the depiction of the Metro-North line - though it's called the fictional "Hudson North" here. After leaving Grand Central Terminal, the commuter train makes two stops at what look like subway stations, before hitting the 125th St. stop. I checked the map, Metro-North trains don't make any stops between GCT and 125th St., and they certainly don't stop at subway stations. But the plot sort of necessitated a character getting on at one of these stops to tell the main character something. But who would pay a Metro-North fare from midtown to 86th St., or even 125th St. and then get off, when a subway fare would be cheaper?
Another NITPICK POINT, when the train reaches its upstate destination, the NYPD cops are there to take control of the scene. Right, the freakin' FBI stood down, and gave up control to LOCAL COPS? Ones who were completely out of their jurisdiction? I don't think so.
I've got one more N.P., but I can't really talk about it without giving away too much of the twists - let's just say that once you know everything, and you go back and think about what the original plan was to get someone from Point A to Point B, it makes no sense. That's too bad, but I only realized it after the fact, it didn't detract from the movie during the movie.
Also starring Liam Neeson (last seen in "The Grey") Vera Farmiga (last seen in "The Judge"), Patrick Wilson (last seen in "Aquaman"), Jonathan Banks (last heard in "Incredibles 2"), Sam Neill (last seen in "Peter Rabbit"), Elizabeth McGovern (last seen in "Woman in Gold"), Killian Scott, Shazad Latif (last seen in "The Man Who Knew Infinity"), Clara Lago, Roland Moller (last seen in "Atomic Blonde"), Florence Pugh, Dean-Charles Chapman (last seen in "Before I Go to Sleep"), Ella-Rae Smith, Nila Aalia, Kobna Holdbrook-Smith (last seen in "Justice League"), Colin McFarlane, Adam Nagaitis, Kingsley Ben-Adir, Damson Idris, Ben Caplan (last seen in "Leap Year"), Letitia Wright (last seen in "Ready Player One"), with a cameo from Pat Kiernan.
RATING: 7 out of 10 book reports
No comments:
Post a Comment