With a decade of hard-edged roles in the aftermath of the original Taken, Liam Neeson is no stranger to playing the anti-hero. He's also no stranger to saying horrible things in off-the-cuff interviews, but that's a story for another day (sorry, I would have felt remiss if I didn't at least mention it). From his four high-concept collaborations with director Jaume Collet-Serra to the Taken sequels and even grittier (often less successful) fare, Neeson has made a second career out of these pulpy characters. Sometimes he's the Hitchcockian everyman, and sometimes he's the guy with a very particular set of skills, but he almost always wins in the end. At this point, it isn't all that unreasonable to wonder what else he can do in the action/thriller genre.
By far the most bizarre and cruel film Neeson has headlined since becoming an action star, Cold Pursuit proves that his set of skills knows no limits- as long as the right filmmaker knows how to put them to use. A remake of Hans Petter Moland's In Order of Disappearance, a Norwegian black comedy led by Stellan Skarsgard and the late Bruno Ganz, Cold Pursuit provides Neeson with the opportunity to put his action chops to the test in a considerably bleaker realm, where a severed head can be used as a prop and death by snowplow is played as a sick joke. It's hilarious- and much more twisted than audiences are probably prepared for.
Director Moland returns to direct this American version (the screenplay was written by Frank Baldwin, based on Kim Fupz Aakeson's original), which sees Neeson take on the role of Nels Coxman, a snowplow driver in the sleepy town of Kehoe. Nothing ever really happens in Kehoe, where Nels has recently been named "Citizen of the Year" for his dedication to keeping the town in tip-top shape. But for Nels, everything changes when his son, Kyle (Micheal Richardson), is found dead of a reported drug overdose. Nels insists that Kyle was never an addict of any kind, but Grace Coxman (Laura Dern, in a mostly thankless role) takes the coroner's word at face value and slips into a deep depression. Nels considers killing himself, only for a former friend of Kyle's to arrive at the last minute with an important bit of information: Kyle was murdered by a gang leader after a deal gone wrong.
Fraught with an incomprehensible feeling of grief and completely isolated from his wife, Nels decides to move up the food chain of the local Kehoe syndicate, killing each one of them in a quest for revenge. The man in charge is Viking (Tom Bateman), and he's increasingly concerned by the disappearance of his men. With a strange moral compass and a twisted version of masculinity, Viking is a one-of-a-kind gangster- and he's also not very smart. Convinced that rival White Bull (Tom Jackson) is attempting to enact his revenge, Viking stumbles into a gang war, one that eventually swallows up his son (Nicholas Holmes), Nels, and a pair of local cops (Emmy Rossum and John Doman). There will be blood, that's for sure.
Cold Pursuit is one of those movies where most audiences simply won't know what to make of it. There were a few chuckles among the sparse crowd at my local multiplex, but I feel like the reaction was better characterized by a general feeling of bafflement than a serious reaction to the material at hand. Neeson murders multiple people in cold blood- and you're supposed to laugh. After a decade of riffs on the Bryan Mills archetype, Neeson plays Nels Coxman as a man who would rather initially face down the barrel of a shotgun than attempt to sort out his issues; revenge is a messy and icky business and it's easier to face the music.
In this transition from po-faced revenge fantasies to a black comedy where murder is played for laughs, Neeson's persona almost instinctively slips into the nihilistic and fatalistic atmosphere of Moland's bitter, icy universe. Until the unexpected switch to a more sentimental mode in the final act, you never really get the sense that Neeson's vengeful father sees a fitting end to this trail of blood. In a way, the shotgun blast to the face has merely been delayed- this is just a chance to take a few scumbags out along the way. For all the gore and strangely comic interludes, Cold Pursuit is a movie where a blank letter from Grace basically sums it up, revealing a black hole of meaningless family bonds and a snowy world of desolation.
Of course, all the doom and gloom is also really, really funny. Moland and his cast are game for a never-ending stream of grim wisecracks, and it's guaranteed to tickle the funny bone of those with an appetite for dry humor. Equipped with some gorgeous landscapes and a few dashes of small-town charm, Moland proves to be a clever and stylish filmmaker, mixing in-your-face flourishes reminiscent of Wes Anderson or Quentin Tarantino with a blunt foundation of hard-boiled chilliness. The plot grows increasingly ridiculous, with a body count marked by "R.I.P" inter-titles that snowball into something spectacular as the violence ramps up. And then there's Tom Bateman as the ruthless, sleazily hysterical Viking, who looks and sounds like Charlie Kirk if he accidentally stumbled his way into a crime syndicate. In other words, he's the perfect villain.
Naturally, the desert-like dryness of the film's comic core makes it a bit hard for Baldwin's screenplay to gain the necessary momentum for this story to fully satisfy. And after a while, it almost feels like Nels' motivation is lost in a story that doesn't belong to him, aimlessly stuck in the middle of Viking and White Bull's crazy war. Still, Cold Pursuit is an oddball slice of hilarity from its inconspicuous start to the gasp-inducing finish, a cruel and vicious movie with just enough heart to keep audiences from feeling totally repelled. But for those who revel in nastiness, don't be afraid- Cold Pursuit delivers the goods with a bullet.
THE FINAL GRADE: B+ (7.6/10)
Images courtesy of Lionsgate
By far the most bizarre and cruel film Neeson has headlined since becoming an action star, Cold Pursuit proves that his set of skills knows no limits- as long as the right filmmaker knows how to put them to use. A remake of Hans Petter Moland's In Order of Disappearance, a Norwegian black comedy led by Stellan Skarsgard and the late Bruno Ganz, Cold Pursuit provides Neeson with the opportunity to put his action chops to the test in a considerably bleaker realm, where a severed head can be used as a prop and death by snowplow is played as a sick joke. It's hilarious- and much more twisted than audiences are probably prepared for.
Director Moland returns to direct this American version (the screenplay was written by Frank Baldwin, based on Kim Fupz Aakeson's original), which sees Neeson take on the role of Nels Coxman, a snowplow driver in the sleepy town of Kehoe. Nothing ever really happens in Kehoe, where Nels has recently been named "Citizen of the Year" for his dedication to keeping the town in tip-top shape. But for Nels, everything changes when his son, Kyle (Micheal Richardson), is found dead of a reported drug overdose. Nels insists that Kyle was never an addict of any kind, but Grace Coxman (Laura Dern, in a mostly thankless role) takes the coroner's word at face value and slips into a deep depression. Nels considers killing himself, only for a former friend of Kyle's to arrive at the last minute with an important bit of information: Kyle was murdered by a gang leader after a deal gone wrong.
Fraught with an incomprehensible feeling of grief and completely isolated from his wife, Nels decides to move up the food chain of the local Kehoe syndicate, killing each one of them in a quest for revenge. The man in charge is Viking (Tom Bateman), and he's increasingly concerned by the disappearance of his men. With a strange moral compass and a twisted version of masculinity, Viking is a one-of-a-kind gangster- and he's also not very smart. Convinced that rival White Bull (Tom Jackson) is attempting to enact his revenge, Viking stumbles into a gang war, one that eventually swallows up his son (Nicholas Holmes), Nels, and a pair of local cops (Emmy Rossum and John Doman). There will be blood, that's for sure.
Cold Pursuit is one of those movies where most audiences simply won't know what to make of it. There were a few chuckles among the sparse crowd at my local multiplex, but I feel like the reaction was better characterized by a general feeling of bafflement than a serious reaction to the material at hand. Neeson murders multiple people in cold blood- and you're supposed to laugh. After a decade of riffs on the Bryan Mills archetype, Neeson plays Nels Coxman as a man who would rather initially face down the barrel of a shotgun than attempt to sort out his issues; revenge is a messy and icky business and it's easier to face the music.
In this transition from po-faced revenge fantasies to a black comedy where murder is played for laughs, Neeson's persona almost instinctively slips into the nihilistic and fatalistic atmosphere of Moland's bitter, icy universe. Until the unexpected switch to a more sentimental mode in the final act, you never really get the sense that Neeson's vengeful father sees a fitting end to this trail of blood. In a way, the shotgun blast to the face has merely been delayed- this is just a chance to take a few scumbags out along the way. For all the gore and strangely comic interludes, Cold Pursuit is a movie where a blank letter from Grace basically sums it up, revealing a black hole of meaningless family bonds and a snowy world of desolation.
Of course, all the doom and gloom is also really, really funny. Moland and his cast are game for a never-ending stream of grim wisecracks, and it's guaranteed to tickle the funny bone of those with an appetite for dry humor. Equipped with some gorgeous landscapes and a few dashes of small-town charm, Moland proves to be a clever and stylish filmmaker, mixing in-your-face flourishes reminiscent of Wes Anderson or Quentin Tarantino with a blunt foundation of hard-boiled chilliness. The plot grows increasingly ridiculous, with a body count marked by "R.I.P" inter-titles that snowball into something spectacular as the violence ramps up. And then there's Tom Bateman as the ruthless, sleazily hysterical Viking, who looks and sounds like Charlie Kirk if he accidentally stumbled his way into a crime syndicate. In other words, he's the perfect villain.
Naturally, the desert-like dryness of the film's comic core makes it a bit hard for Baldwin's screenplay to gain the necessary momentum for this story to fully satisfy. And after a while, it almost feels like Nels' motivation is lost in a story that doesn't belong to him, aimlessly stuck in the middle of Viking and White Bull's crazy war. Still, Cold Pursuit is an oddball slice of hilarity from its inconspicuous start to the gasp-inducing finish, a cruel and vicious movie with just enough heart to keep audiences from feeling totally repelled. But for those who revel in nastiness, don't be afraid- Cold Pursuit delivers the goods with a bullet.
THE FINAL GRADE: B+ (7.6/10)
Images courtesy of Lionsgate
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