If you go into Absolution like any other Liam Neeson movie since the release of Taken, you’ll be extremely disappointed. The movie doesn’t have any of the action the actor has gotten fans used to.
For a crime movie, there isn’t much of the action or the tension that usually captivates viewers. On the contrary, nothing truly happens in that realm until Neeson’s character has to fight the shooters who kill the priest. After that, we see him kill his former boss and a bunch of Latinx pimps.
Even those scenes aren’t on par with what someone would expect from a Liam Neeson movie. This, however, goes hand-in-hand with Neeson’s recent revelation that he is looking to retire from action movies. If that is the case, it makes perfect sense that there are zero to no action scenes.
Once one is able to get over that detail, the movie is simply sad. Nothing in it makes viewers feel like it’s a thriller.
On the contrary, it feels like a terrible ending for a man who is introduced to us as someone who used to be the best in the game. We only get a glimpse of that from time to time. For the rest of the movie, we pity this character without really feeling sorry for him because he isn’t a good man.
In previous movies, no matter how many men Neeson’s characters killed, we were always rooting for him to win. In Absolution, viewers spend most of the time wishing he’d overcome his stubbornness and ask for the help he needs. This doesn’t happen.
Because of this, the film feels slow. The character is just going in circles, waiting to die. Eventually, he does, ending a terrible life of crime and loneliness.
This predictable death doesn’t make the audience feel any particular way. It just feels like the inevitable end that was coming toward this man. He is a criminal who walked out on his family and judged his son for being gay; there truly isn’t anything rescuable in his character.
For an actor who had fans used to incredible action scenes even late into his 60s, Absolution is disappointing. The most action we get is a few punches here and there, some shots, and Neeson’s character being stabbed.
However, this isn’t the only disappointing fact. The movie as a whole feels like pieces of a puzzle that don’t fit together quite well.
Thug and Woman’s storyline could have been explored in a different movie. This relationship doesn’t make sense in the big picture. What happens between them adds nothing to the plot besides the fact that Woman is the one to tell Daisy that her father is sick.
Even then, Daisy could have found out a different way, which wouldn’t have changed anything. Thug wants no help, and Daisy isn’t going to change her life for a man who walked out on her.
Thug’s storyline with his family is the only one that makes sense as part of a movie that focuses on a former criminal finding out he is sick and wanting to make amends with his family. However, the mix-up with the pimps and the younger woman whose freedom he tries to buy also adds nothing to the film.
All it does is bring Thug to his inevitable death, which could have been avoided or brought to him by the hands of Connor’s son, avenging his father.
The film has great potential, particularly with an actor of Neeson’s level. Nevertheless, it falls short.
Absolution doesn’t feel like the big goodbye a major action star deserves from this genre. There is so much more that could have been done to allow Neeson to step away from the scene in a better light. Maybe this isn’t the end, and there’s one more punch in him.
We can, however, highlight the small funny moment in the movie in which a bottle of De Nada tequila, Neeson’s son’s brand, is shown on Thug’s counter. Other than that, the movie dies on sad notes, just like Thug’s ending.
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Lara Rosales
By day, Lara Rosales (she/her) is a solo mom by choice and a bilingual writer with a BA in Latin-American Literature who works in PR. By night, she is a TV enjoyer who used to host a podcast (Cats, Milfs & Lesbian Things). You can find her work published on Tell-Tale TV, Geek Girl Authority, Collider, USA Wire, Mentors Collective, Instelite, Noodle, Dear Movies, Nicki Swift, and Flip Screened.
