Liam Neeson has essentially been playing the same character for years now. His roles have largely consisted of older men with darkness in their past, using their vast range of skills and experience in an ordeal that will eventually redeem them in the eyes of their loved ones. We should all be tired of it by now, except Neeson is so good at these roles that it's easy to forgive the lack of variation. The latest iteration is Run All Night, and while it is not the strongest entry in the Neeson-as-tough-old-guy canon, it still possesses all of the gruff, muscular content required to be somewhat enjoyable.
Jimmy Conlon (Liam Neeson) is haunted by all the people he's killed for gangster Shawn Maguire (Ed Harris). He spends his days getting blackout drunk, trying to forget the things that he's done. He is brought out of his stupor when his estranged son Mike (Joel Kinnaman) witnesses Maguire's son Danny (Boyd Holbrook) murder a pair of Albanian thugs. When Danny tries to kill Mike, Jimmy shoots Danny first. This lands the both of them in heaps of trouble, as they become targets for elements on both sides of the law. The story has a lot of moving parts, and it's sometimes difficulty to keep track of it all. At one point, the movie suddenly reminds the audience that there was another witness to the murder, and the momentum has to shift as the main characters take a narrative detour to look for the said witness. The story isn't complicated; it just feels excessively plotted. The best parts of the film aren't very concerned with what needs to happen next. These are scenes that suggest history between characters, relating stories about times long past that speak directly to their current situation.
It's expository dialogue, but the film features a caliber of actor that can make these scenes shine anyway. Liam Neeson is basically all about this, his weary eyes and overall demeanor constantly alluding to a history that we no longer need to see. Ed Harris has the same ability, the lines on his face conveying what words cannot. Vincent D'Onofrio shows up in a couple of scenes as a police detective that has spent his life chasing down Jimmy. And though the dialogue is kind of clunky, the actor imbues them with such natural gravity that it almost doesn't matter.
The film is at its weakest when it attempts to be an action movie. This really should have just been a crime drama, with confrontations static but tense. But the film instead features a few overly kinetic action sequences that may as well have been in a completely different movie. The film chooses chaos over clarity, and these scenes, which were presumably assembled as a means of injecting energy into the picture, are instead rather enervating. The film actually slows down as it tries to make things look fast. These sequences also happen to feature the one character that doesn’t really fit in this world, a high-tech assassin played by Common that may as well have been from a completely different movie.
Apart from the action sequences, Run All Night feels like it could have been a film from the seventies, in that era of Hollywood where all sorts of dark, modest dramas reigned. And though it is overly plotted, the strength of the scenes where the characters are just talking about their respective pasts and their struggles with living in the present are more than enough to make up for the excess of narrative business. It is really just the insistence on shaky, jumpy action that makes it possible to feel the over two-hour runtime. Otherwise, it is a real pleasure to watch these actors weave stories.
My Rating:
