Rating: C+
Dir: Robert Lorenz
Star: Liam Neeson, Kerry Condon, Jack Gleeson, Colm Meane
While taking place in at least a relatively modern era – the mid-seventies, to be precise – this is very much a potato Western. It’s basically your “tired gunslinger forced to defend the town from outlaws” plot, just set in the small town of Gleann Colm Cille on the West coast of rural Ireland. There, we meet Finbar Murphy (Neeson), who occasionally carries out executions for mob boss employer, Robert (Meaney). But he wants to retire, read great works of literature and plant a flower garden. There is a scene of Finbar literally hanging up his shotgun, which we know has precisely a zero percent chance of sticking. Hitmen in movies and professional wrestlers: neither of them ever retire for long.
Much as Finbar would like to hand off the position to young, enthusiastic killer Kevin (Gleeson, whom you’ll know as Prince Joffrey), it’s therefore no surprise when the presence of a terrorist cell, led by Doireann (Condon), becomes significant. They are holed up nearby, after their botched pub bombing killed three kids. The trio’s local contact falls onto Finbar’s radar due to a spot of child abuse – clearly having never seen any of Neeson’s filmography, or being aware of his very particular set of skills. With the inevitability of the sun setting, he ends up the latest tree in the assassin’s forest of death. In turn, this puts Finbar onto Doireann’s radar, after she finds an incriminating bullet in Robert’s office.
You should not be surprised to learn that it all ends up with a shootout between Finbar and the IRA terrorists. This takes place in the local saloon, sorry, pub, the local sheriff, sorry, Garda officer proving to be as useful as as a chocolate saguaro, sorry, shamrock. Even the soundtrack seems to be pulling continually further West than County Donegal. Lorenz previously directed Neeson in The Marksman, which had similar aspirations, though was at least set in Arizona, so didn’t need to book a transatlantic flight to reach them. On the other hand, nice to see Neeson in a role which does not require him to tone down his Irish brogue. A couple of the other characters could have been helped by doing so, occasionally drifting beyond comprehension.
The strong cast – basically, every Irish actor you know except Brendan Gleeson – do the tired and clichéd material more justice than it deserves. Condon has a zero-tolerance policy with regard to bullshit, making for a decent adversary. Though it’s often painfully clear why her henchmen are just that, to the point it reminded me of a number of Irish jokes from my youth [hey, they were perfectly acceptable in the period this is set]. It just tries far too hard to be Irish, with a capital I. Combined with the glaringly obvious nature of the plot, this leaves it another of the apparently interchangeable entries in the Neeson filmography, where he acts as a lone wolf seeking justice.