Liam Neeson races against the clock — aboard a train
There’s a moment in “The Commuter” when the newly unemployed insurance salesman and former cop played by Liam Neeson is informed that his adversaries will be coming after his wife and son. Have these fools not seen the “Taken” movies? Don’t they realize that such a threat is simply going to make Liam Neeson mad?
This is the fourth teaming of Neeson and director Jaume Collet-Serra, men who have made millions racing against the clock. “The Commuter” was preceded by “Unknown” (2011, Neeson versus identity theft in Berlin), “NonStop” (2014, Neeson versus murderous extortionists on a trans-Atlantic flight) and “Run All Night” (2015, Neeson versus the mob, and the pavement). You can dismiss these as implausible, overheated and daffy, but the person sitting next to you probably enjoyed them, to varying degrees, for those same qualities. I was that person sitting next to you.
Downsized at age 60, saddled with debts, suburban New Yorker Michael MacCauley (Neeson) meets his old friend from the police force (Patrick Wilson) for beers on his final day of work. Then he does what he has done for 10 years, day in, day out. He boards his MetroNorth out of Grand Central Station, this time steeling himself for sharing the bad news with his real-estate seller wife (Elizabeth McGovern) and collegebound son (Dean-Charles Chapman).
A stranger on the train, played by Vera Farmiga, makes Michael an offer. If he can locate a specific passenger with a mysterious bag somewhere on the train and plant a GPS on her/him, for reasons she won’t reveal but that surely involve murder, then he gets $100,000 for his finder’s fee. She mentions there’s another bag, containing a $25,000 down payment, hidden in a restroom compartment on the train.
The second that Michael touches that money, he’s in deep. The woman pops off the train but keeps in electronic touch, knows his every move and reminds him, constantly, testily, of his deadline. One passenger dies as a warning, then another, as Michael frantically searches for the mystery passenger.
After a half-hour of klutzing around with the exposition, “The Commuter” flings Neeson into full-on, CGI-assisted derring-do mode. The latter would be more effective if we gave a rip about the former. The conspiracy behind the absurdly complicated plan to frame Michael for the on-board carnage is so haphazardly laid out that, by the time we come to the reveals and the train-derailment climax, the audience is still sorting through what the screenwriters should’ve taken care of in the early scenes.
“The Commuter,” then, is one of those movies with good things going in one direction and cheesy things going in the other. The ever-valuable Farmiga is a faceless voice after her sole on-screen appearance, and director Collet-Serra’s frantic, hand-held technique ensures that every supporting player looks as guilty as possible. The cast includes some aces, notably Florence Pugh from “Lady Macbeth” and Jonathan Banks from “Better Call Saul.” The movie goes off the rails somewhat before the train does, but the star gives it the ol’ Liam Neeson, which Liam Neeson can do better than anybody.