First things first...if you need an actor to play a distressed, perplexed, frustrated, and angry father/husband in a 21st century action movie, you dial up Liam Neeson to fill the bill.
Ever since his career-defining role as Bryan Mills in 2008’s “Taken,” Neeson has found a nice groove being the elder statesmen of action movies. He’s more shaken than stirred, and has made a living on roles largely representative of the euro-style action films that made Jason Statham a star.
It is in that same vein that “The Commuter” comes to the big screen.
Neeson plays Michael MacCauley — a former cop turned insurance salesman who commutes from the suburbs to NYC each week during the Monday to Friday grind.
He has a wife named Karen (Elizabeth McGovern) and teenage son. MacCauley works hard for his family. He takes an interest in his son’s schoolwork (reading concurrently with his son’s classic lit assignments).
“The Commuter” starts off with a stylized montage featuring a series of “typical days” for Michael MacCauley as he gets ready for the day, interacts with his family, is dropped off for the train, and makes his daily commute into New York City. It is an effective technique as the audience gets rapid-fire exposition into MacCauley’s personal life.
Things seem fairly routine — until one fateful day, when MacCauley finds himself downsized from his 10-year insurance career. In addition, he learns he doesn’t have enough money for his son’s college tuition, and washes away his woes drinking with a former NYPD partner (Patrick Wilson) after work.
To add insult to injury, MacCauley has his mobile phone stolen on the way to his afternoon commuter train.
As MacCauley settles in for the ride home, a mysterious woman named Joanna (Vera Farmiga) approaches him, and sits down for a chat. She informs MacCauley that there is a compartment holding $25,000 on the train, and that he can have an additional $75,000 if he identifies a particular passenger who “doesn’t belong” before the last stop at Cold Spring, NY. The individual in question goes by the name of “Prynne.”
Curiosity tugs at MacCauley, and eventually gets the better of him. He soon discovers the hidden $25,000 — that act ignites a train-bound mystery which lasts the duration of the movie.
The film is similar in concept to Neeson’s 2014 film “Non-Stop” — a mystery/thriller that took place on an airplane.
“The Commuter’s” Hitchcockian plot is compelling, if ludicrous at times. Neeson is one of the few actors who can make walking around a train scowling and questioning random passengers watchable.
Despite being built in a more macho fashion, “The Commuter” is a far more intriguing train-centric mystery than 2017’s “Murder on the Orient Express.”
Since I’m a connoisseur of this form of action thriller (which aging actors like Neeson and Kevin Costner have headlined in recent years), I enjoyed “The Commuter” quite a lot. It harkens back to the sort of action movies that defined the box office in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
Sadly these days, such tomes often get pushed aside in favor of the latest sci-fi/fantasy/superhero special-effects extravaganza.
But there is a certain charm in seeing ordinary people being thrown into harrowing circumstances — only to survive on their intellect, cunning, and stoicism.
While “The Commuter” lacks the subtlety and nuance that would elevate it to “classic thriller” status, there is enough momentum on this train to get the job done.
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