Ah the January release. Few thoughts strike such fear in the hearts of obsessive movie goers. Enter our hero, Liam Neeson, and his special set of skillz, to save us all from the January film graveyard.
For the commuter, Neeson takes those skillz to a train, where he is an ex-cop on his long commute home. On the way he’s approached by a mysterious woman (Vera Farmiga) who asks him to do “one little thing”, identify a particular passenger, in exchange for a whole lotta money. Of course, it’s not that simple. His task becomes increasingly difficult as the stakes get higher and higher.
Sounds like a pretty typical low budget January thriller, yeah? Surprisingly, this one worked rather well. It opened with a really great montage highlighting the daily grind, that I thought was rather inventive. From there on the film just held me. The suspense was constant (granted, my anxiety was high this week, so I was very susceptible) and it gave the thrills I live for. I also really liked how it was shot. There were some really cool tracking shots and object close ups that were far more skillful and stylish than I thought a movie like this was capable of. Okay yes, some of the effects and such got ridiculous, but I could forgive that.
Yeah we’ve seen Neeson do this kinda thing before, but he does excel at it. I loved that Patrick Wilson was in this, even if his screentime was minimal. Ultimately, the film wasn’t perfect, but it was far better than I expected. And the important thing is that I had fun watching it, and that is really all you need.
The Commuter – \m/ \m/ \m/ \n