Absolution
Directed by Hans Petter Moland
Written by Tony Gayton
Starring: Liam Neeson, Yolonda Ross, Frankie Shaw, Ron Perlman
Rated R
Runtime: 2 hours 2 minutes
In theaters November 1

by Darian Davis, Staff Writer

Liam Neeson is a moviemaking machine, churning out multiple lead performances a year since his old dog revenge-o-matic Taken in 2008. Of course, many of these movies are variations on Neeson’s late career archetype: the retired graybeard who’s called back to his former life of violence to protect the innocent and defenseless while seeking redemption for his previous unforgivable deeds. I have enjoyed grouping many of these roles into informal trilogies, including the “Cold Trilogy” (The Grey, The Ice Road, Cold Pursuit), the “Commuter Trilogy” (Non-Stop, The Commuter, Retribution), and with Neeson’s latest outing, the “Memory Trilogy” (including Unknown and Memory). Those looking for Neeson’s typical straight-ahead beat-em-up fare will be disappointed in Absolution, a slower, more introspective film that struggles to meet its aspirations as an abstract character study.

Absolution directed by Hans Petter Moland features Neeson as a gangster well past his prime, whose worsening memory makes his everyday assignments so much of a chore he carries a notepad to remember simple things like names, places, and henchman body markings. We know our protagonist is well past his prime because his wispy sideburns, disco-worthy ‘stache, and worn leather jacket look as if he stepped right off the lot of The French Connection (1971). The painfully glaring costume is made even more irksome by the faded red Chevy Chevelle he putters around Boston in. The get up is working overtime to convince the audience that Neeson is a Heavy from a bygone era. Neeson’s character is so run-of-the-mill, he isn’t even given a name, only “Thug” as mentioned in the end credits. To lay it on extra thick, the protagonist is juxtaposed by the boss’s overeager startup son (Daniel Diemer) calling Thug a “dinosaur” from the driver’s seat of his Tesla and a pimp client (Javier Molina) who only refers to him as “Jurassic Park.” Oh, and I won’t even start on Neeson’s attempt at a Boston accent.

What I will credit Neeson on is his undeniable dramatic chops. After struggling to find his way home from a one-night stand (good for Neeson still giving us tender love scenes), Neeson’s character decides to see a doctor. His test results reveal an advanced stage of CTE, which he developed from his former days as a boxer. The protagonist’s worst mental episodes give Neeson something to chew on, and he delivers with the right amount of pain and vulnerability to lift Thug slightly above his generic trappings. The protagonist’s diagnosis leads him to try and reconcile with his estranged daughter (Frankie Shaw) and grandson (Terrence Pulliam), both stock characters. The rest of the cast includes standout Yolonda Ross as the protagonist’s love interest, a woman seeking her own path toward redemption. Ross plays her role with tenderness and clear-eyed determination that elevates the script. Ron Perlman appears as mob boss Charlie Conner, who is seated behind a desk and given virtually nothing to do for most of his criminally limited screen time.

This film is Neeson’s second outing with Moland, having also starred in Cold Pursuit (2019), one of the actor’s better recent movies. Moland attempts to frame the film as an impressionistic character study, and he uses the protagonist’s dreams to create scenes where water has suddenly flooded the bedroom/apartment when it had been previously devoid of it. The dream sequences themselves are ambiguous spaces with Neeson lying on a boat (or a couch) that’s jetting through the ocean and steered by his deceased father. The visuals in and of themselves are intriguing– clearly serving as larger metaphors for the character’s moral dilemmas–but feel misplaced and tonally disjoined from the gritty drama the rest of the film proves itself to be.

Aside from his bid for making an arthouse drama, where Moland does succeed is in the small bursts of action and suspense I thought I’d get more of. One scene in particular paints a fun picture of the beast Thug must have been in his prime. The protagonist is in the process of collecting payment from a man of the cloth in an empty moving van when a nondescript sports car pulls onto their deserted street and off frame. Before the priest steps off the bed of the van, he is shot dead in the head. The rest of the scene calls on Neeson’s action instincts. Thug uses the muffled sounds from the interior of the van to count the number of unseen assailants, and subsequently dispatches them with choreographed precision. It’s a brilliant set piece proving Moland has a flair for the physical aspects of the genre but highlights the missed opportunity to employ more violence to contrast the film’s underlying vulnerability.

Absolution does its best to convey just that; one man’s journey to absolve himself of his sins, ultimately leaving a legacy stained by his worst actions. Frankly, Neeson has played the archetype better and with more nuance in similar movies. Moland’s entry doesn’t offer anything new to the age-old formula and, instead, lands itself in purgatory for lacking a clear voice.