Liam Neeson pursued two careers as an actor. For some time, he was considered to be a ‘highbrow’ thespian one focused and comfortable in serious, artistic works. Then it all changed after his role in Taken in 2009 as he developed a passion for action-thrillers earning him bigger pay checks. Unfortunately, the same could not be said about the movies themselves, as that genre has been struck with the same lack of box office revenue with each sequel earning less and less. As he felt the discontent from the majority of the viewers, he was able to give birth to Absolution, which portrays Neeson in a different role headed towards a unique storyline. Roughly speaking, this can be dubbed as his version of Unforgiven, which seems to have many things in common with its bare-bones structure, though, it surely does not come close to Clint Eastwood’s level of recognition.
This time around, Neeson is a criminal a brawler, and an assassin and he says that the cause has no righteousness and he’s not the man who is playing a straitjacket. His decision to seek forgiveness, for example, is out of the blue and goes to say that it is because of a conscience that has been affected by a terminal illness. Married to a strong woman nearly 70 years old, she still exhibits physical strength with advancing age, however, unlike the unnamed character, Neeson has deteriorated over time with CTE. Although Neeson is around 70 years of age, he is still fighting, however, his character in “Thug” (as the movie credits reference him) has also developed CTE which is CTE which is the severe, progressive degenerative brain disorder that stops his memory and personality. All ex-boxer Thug seems to have such description ie having a history of concussions yet it isn’t a formal diagnosis until a medical exam is undergone, hence it is in the assumption that signs of memory loss, disorientation, and convulsions of aggressive violence indicate this diagnosis for Thug.
Those who thought that making the appearance of Neeson is synonymous with that of Sheriff Buford Pusser should probably think again. That’s not one of those. As a character, he is as far removed from the terrifying force he once was; several characters have, on more than one occasion, referred to him as a dinosaur. His executive memory has deteriorated so badly he can’t even recall his boss’ name which is Charlie Connor played by Ron Perlman that he factors in the need to write down some things on a pad. The same sorts of gaps in memories also appear to his orphaned kids, almost as if he was looking at some still pictures. In toilet brief conversations with Thug’s daughter Daisy, which as per the viewer’s imagination must have been quite strained, Thug asked her what her brother was called and where was he buried. And in other cases when situations don’t allow him to act he is glad to respond because it means he is capable of transforming a doer into a winner and he does all this without a whimper because as a matter of fact, the situation pleads for such kind of silence, And then he has all 1 final questions to answer: who is it that is seeking to kill him before the CTE can kill him first?
The character of a conflicted, fading bully is more interesting than a number of the men which, especially in postctaken and paycheck first days, Neeson has embodied.
Chaotic is the word to describe Neeson’s performance in Thug. Bringing forward many emotions that at times made me pity the character. But Neeson’s performance is not of an isolated island in the sea, other actors give impressive performances as well. Failing to impress however are the other lead actors, at least towards the audience. Frank Shaw, Diemer , Ron Perlman and Yolanda Ross were nowhere near impressive. The screenplay however did lack as the movie as a whole felt incomplete and required at least 15 more minutes of run time.
Absolution has not been promoted and interest is lacking; it is safe to say that it will likely fail at the box office as well. Additionally, there’s no specific audience it may be too bland for those who like biopics, but it is also too sad for the fans of many of Liam’s more mediocre films these days. What this is certainly not is Taken. To me, the first one was to slow down the pace of Neeson films but the film in total is too flawed for me to wholeheartedly endorse it. The pace is an issue as well as some components of the ending. However, where I presume it will end up in a matter of days, that is, Netflix, it’s an ok way to kill time for a few hours.
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