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Liam Neeson has played a variety of “angry dad” action heroes and we can even start to classify those movies into sub-genres. His latest, “Retribution,” goes alongside “Non-Stop” and “The Commuter” as one of his “angry dad has a bad day” entries. The plot is more stripped-down than usual, with action mostly confined to one vehicle that has a pressure-sensitive bomb planted beneath the seats. (Heard that before?) But Neeson has become so good at this that he has turned a stressed-out guy in a car sitting in traffic into a thrilling character.
He plays Matt Turner, a Berlin-based businessman whose domestic life and precarious international transactions are caving in below him. His two teenage kids, Zach (Jack Champion) and Emily (Lilly Aspell) are arguing brats who shut him out with their headphones. His wife, Heather (Embeth Davidtz) is contemplating divorce. To make things worse, Matt receives a call from an anonymous stranger telling him his car with his kids in the back will explode if he does not follow a set of increasingly troubling instructions.
This premise is quite appealing to filmmakers which explains their repeated use of it. (Retribution has its roots in a Spanish film made in 2015 which was based on the “Speed” franchise, and it has already been remade two times in German and Korean). From the beginning of the film, we are prisoners, both physically and psychologically watching the world from the eyes of this terribly flawed person who is simultaneously a victim at the mercy of some maniac. However, towards the end of the day, Matt is plastered all over the news as an unparalleled terrorist as a result of him being a dogged Europol agent who targets Noma Dumezweni’s attention.
While attempting to make the script functional, it has become largely bland and burdened with info dumps where multiple people try to draw a link between Matt’s business’s failure and his current baffling situation and the foreboding where the ‘Retribution’ in Retribution is coming from. Nimród Antal (“Vacancy”), the director, adjusts the pacing of the movie briskly and maintains the sense of momentum by constantly having Matt’s car throw through the busy streets. However, no matter what, even Antal is powerless when the story crashes into yet another din-inducing ‘ jargon’ filled monologue.
This is the bit where having Liam Neeson in the role is beneficial. In the end, the mystery of who is driving Matt to the edge of insanity is not that important. (Honestly, the solution is not all that interesting.) Like almost all of Neeson’s action endeavors, this one is centered around a man who is about to lose his mind and has already been set up to have a bomb placed under him.
As per usual, Matt gets to a breaking point where he is no longer the target, and seeks vengeance for himself, allowing the audience to experience some gratification directly. That’s the purpose of such films. “Retribution” is definitely not at the top of the list of Neeson’s best works, but it does the job, as is usually the case with Neeson-starring movies, provided you shift your attention and ears away from the cringe-worthy quotes. Instead, fixate on the constantly on-edge expression on our protagonist’s face as you endure the suspense, wondering which will explode first, his car or his temper.
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