Retribution

A shocking thing I realized in prepping my review: this is the first movie I’ve seen which stars Liam Neeson. I’ve of course seen him in a bunch of supporting roles, but some of his most acclaimed performances remain on my watchlist, such as Schindler’s List and Darkman. Granted, he’s been in a bunch of movies in recent years, many of them more in the mold of Taken than Batman Begins. Which is to say that by most accounts, I haven’t been missing out on much. But with how strong of a pop culture presence he has, I would have expected to just happen across more.

Retribution is one such movie, clearly drawing from the action hero side of his persona. We follow Matt Turner (Liam Neeson) as he demonstrates being a bad father due to his dedication to work. His kids (Jack Champion and Emily Kusche) don’t respect him, his wife (Embeth Davidtz) is thinking of divorce, and all he cares about is saving a crumbling business deal. For once, this morning he’s driving the kids to school so his wife can grab coffee with a friend. On the way, he gets a call from a distorted voice and an unknown number, who informs them their seats are equipped with bombs which will trigger if they get up, as well as a remote detonator in case they do anything he doesn’t like. To prove he’s serious, he detonates a car containing Matt’s co-worker while Matt and his kids look on. When Matt speeds away from the scene, he draws the attention of the cops who eventually peg him as the bomber.

That premise isn’t terrible. It’s a sort of impossible situation, one where Matt has no real way to know if the kidnapper is telling the truth. Sure, he can feel the bomb under his seat, but he can’t check the back seat. This guy seems to be directing him to do a lot, so would he really blow Matt up before he gets what he wants? And what does he want? It has inbuilt tension and intrigue, especially as the type of situation which despite being fantastical and unrealistic, still gets you thinking about how you’d handle it. How would anyone handle it?

The problem is in the execution. We need to see Matt slowly working over the course of the film on ways to foil this guy. It needs to build and build, and either lead to a third act where Matt is trying to hunt him down and get revenge, or his attempts fail which causes the kidnapper to raise the stakes. Instead, he just kind of goes along with it for the most part. He does use the mute button a few times so he can take a different call or talk to his kids. Which is something, I guess. It does lead to a brief and small zone where they’re safe from remote detonation, albeit one that isn’t needed for reasons we see in a scene just before it. But it’s not very cinematic or interesting, especially since he seems resigned to his fate, reduced to begging the voice to let his loved ones go.

One of the worst parts is the constant implications that there’s something more sinister going on here, some deeper and more egregious crime, some secret that’s to be uncovered. But they take so long getting there that you’ve likely lost interest long before the payoff, which is itself incredible dumb and boring. It means that we don’t get to learn much about Matt except that he desperately wants his kids not to die.

Being stuck in a car with Matt and his two kids means we need engaging, intense, but grounded performances, with characters whose emotional states are carefully calibrated. That there are three of them should help, since they can in theory play off each other, as opposed to some of the films this is invoking (Locke and Phone Booth both come to mind). But none of the actors are up to the task. Both child actors feel like child actors: they overact, they’re wildly inconsistent, and at no point feel like humans, especially in the scenes which ask them to carry true emotion. Neeson’s performance also stinks, but it appears to come from lack of interest than lack of skill. He’s sleepwalking through this role, never quite sure who Matt is, and consequently, neither are we. None of the minor characters do much better, either coming across very flat or incredibly confounding. It’s truly some of the worst acting I’ve seen in a theatrical release in quite some time.

What makes this mediocrity even stranger is that it’s an English-language remake of a reasonably well received Spanish-French co-production also called Retribution (at least in English). That implies implies they saw something promising in the premise. And yet, based on the summary online, this version’s plot is almost exactly the same as the earlier one, save for a few very key points which make all the difference. So maybe they actually only did it under the assumption that Americans don’t like subtitles? Which feels like an odd assertion in 2023, after a South Korean movie won Best Picture. Of course, you could retort that the audience for a Neeson film doesn’t have much overlap with the Academy, which I’d be forced to concede.

Regardless of their motive, the result is a mess. It’s bland, inert, and full of bafflingly bad decisions strewn throughout its runtime. There’s nary a redeeming quality in the film, which is a stunning achievement. It has absolutely not left me with the desire to seek out other recent Liam Neeson helmed movies. Which is a damn shame. But I can take solace in the existence of the great work he’s done in the past, and look forward to experiencing it for the first time.