Why is Nicholas Cage not driving around with his head on fire in award season? Well we have silly bad people threatening Liam Neeson’s family instead. Obviously they haven’t watched the Taken movies and don’t know that he was sensei to Batman and Obi Wan Kenobi. This is director Jaume Collet-Serra and Neeson’s fourth collaboration after the unsettling Unknown , the melancholy Run All Night and the goofy Non Stop .
Here Neeson plays Michael MacCauley, an insurance salesman. He was an NYPD cop who quit the force to spend time with the family—Bryan Mills anyone? On the day he is fired, things turn worse on his train ride home, when a woman, Joanna, tells him to do a little job or horrid things will happen to his wife, Karen, and son. As the train hurtles to its final destination MacCauley has to save the innocent, punish the guilty and be the all-around good guy.’
- Director: Jaume Collet-Serra
- Cast: Liam Neeson, Vera Farmiga, Patrick Wilson, Jonathan Banks, Elizabeth McGovern, Sam Neill
- Story line: Bad guys who haven’t watched the Taken series threaten Liam Neeson’s family
Though the film is spare at 105 minutes, it does not have the urgency of Taken or Unknown or even the hysterical silliness of Non Stop . Leeson seems to spend a lot of time going up and down the train with Joanna, sounding shriller and sillier as the train hurtles to its final destination. There are crooked cops, conspiracies galore, excellent action sequences and thanks to the top-notch cast, one is invested in the workman-like thriller.
Vera Farmiga as Joanna is luminescent and coldly cruel till she starts to get shrill and Elizabeth McGovern (Lady Crawley from Downton Abbey ) is Karen.
Apart from the joy of seeing a 65-year-old Neeson beat up the bad guys, another plus is the way the film celebrates literature. Steinbeck as a conversation opener and Nathaniel Hawthorne providing a crucial clue are glorious treats.
Now if only Leeson would say “I will look for you, I will find you and I will kill you” in his velveteen growl.
