I have generally enjoyed Liam Neeson’s action film career since Taken.  He’s a rugged actor who can make even pedestrian scripts seem more important and involving than they really are.  Even his goofiest action films have elements of suspense, fun, irony or adrenaline that I appreciate.  As high concept thriller premises go, the one for Retribution is intriguing.  It’s just a shame that the film falters when it should have been smart and effective.

Nimród Antal’s film (the third international remake of a Spanish movie with the same title from 2015) has bank officer Matt Turner (Liam Neeson) trapped in a car with his two children by a mad bomber who has planted a bomb in that car, and framed him for murder.  It’s like Speed, but slower, and with a much smaller cast.  How will Turner extricate himself and clear his name?

This simple concept demands careful filmmaking to be plausible and convincing.  Let’s admit that the cinematography and sound designs for this story are excellent.  Technically the film works really well.  But the script fails in two ways.  First, it loses logic along the way, suggesting a way out for fooling the bomber and then not using the very weakness it suggests.  Second, the lack of communication between the characters, who communicate mostly with cell phones, is atrocious.  Turner is quiet, even recalcitrant, when he should be explaining things, and the police who surround him eventually flatly refuse to listen to him.  Like they know better.  On the other hand, the feeling that the police cannot be trusted is a potent reaction for both Matt and the audience, and works in the story’s favor.

The other factor in the film’s favor is that it fooled me.  I did not guess the identity of the mad bomber, though there are clues.  I fell for the story’s gimmicks and red herrings.  That’s a good job on the filmmakers’ part.  But then they reveal the identity in the stupidest way possible, allowing Turner to finally take control of the situation.  The film’s final few minutes are almost absurd in how Matt Turner escapes an explosive fate and clears his name.  Now I’ve cleared things up so you won’t have to see it.  ☆ ☆.  31 August 2023.