She bombed a place, killed a few innocents. He’s a killer and did in her brother, who had it comin’. Now she wants revenge. There’s a lot of small plot in the film, but that is essentially what it comes down to … and one might recognize the futility of the pattern: where does it end? When you finally kill someone whom nobody wants to avenge? That doesn’t really make any sense, cuz why would you be killing them in the first place? How about: when you finally kill somebody and there’s nobody left to do vengeance? Yeah, that I would believe … sort of.
Doireann McCann (Kerry Condon) is the original IRA bomber. We see her work in the opening and then she disappears for two acts. The story is about Finbar Murphy (Liam Neeson), a killer by trade. He has a nice little place where he takes the future corpses and has them dig their own graves before he executes them -that’s kinda messed up. Then he plants a sapling on top of the fresh dirt. His little streamside grove in the middle of God-knows-where Ireland is ever expanding. Too bad he couldn’t have done-in the cast of Irish Wish prior to filming.
The time period is … ago … an age where the IRA and pipe bombs exist, but cell phones don’t. And a trained assassin uses a shot gun. Well, gosh, as long as the victim stands still, you can’t miss, right? Gee, I hope they don’t, you know, move. Luckily, 71-year-old Neeson is certain to run ‘em down with ease, right? After an existential discussion with
his latest victim, Murphy wants out of the killin’ game. Does he have a retirement plan? Can’t believe the Irish mob has a 401k plan. It’s never really discussed. Doesn’t matter; this commitment to peace lasts about five minutes until Murphy runs into a guy who needs some killin’, the brother of the bomber.
Well, you don’t mess with the IRA … and you don’t mess with a paid assassin. While both are true, something has got to give, and the film spends a lot of time going over middling details while getting to the battle of small-time titans. I’m still left with a grimace and a question of “where does it end?”
I’m trying to pick In the Land of Saints and Sinners out from your average Liam Neeson film, and it seemed easy at first, but in retrospect, it seems much more difficult: does Neeson play a badass? Yes. Soft spoken? Yes. Does he kill a guy? Yes. Does he act alone? Yes. Is he on the side of good? At first, no, but then, yes. Does he use violence to teach a lesson? Yes. And, yet, does he play the “I’m only using violence as a last resort” card? Oh, yes, constantly. Huh. Here’s the thing – we may not be in the United States and we may not be from this time period, but after that, this is your standard Liam Neeson film disguised as an IRA revenge tale… isn’t that nice? Meh. This film had more of my attention than your average Neeson thriller, but this is a very tepid recommendation at best. I’m only pushing over to the good side because I think tried to be a little more than it was. Was it successful? Meh. But that’s where I am with Neeson’s entire career these days.
There was once an Irish hitter named Fin
Who sought to put a cap on his sin
Then somebody was bad
And our man got real mad
Redemption? I wouldn’t know where to begin
Rated R, 106 Minutes
Director: Robert Lorenz
Writer: Mark Michael McNally, Terry Loane
Genre: Vengeance is forever
Type of being most likely to enjoy this film: People with an exaggerated need for revenge
Type of being least likely to enjoy this film: “Hasn’t there been enough killing?”
