Grief-stricken father strikes back against crime lords
Revenge is a dish best served at sub-zero temperature in Norwegian director Hans Petter Moland’s Englishlanguage remake of his 2014 black comedy In Order Of Disappearance.
Screenwriter Frank Baldwin transplants the stylised blood-letting from snow-laden Scandinavia to the ski slopes of a fictional Colorado town where white powder on the ground could be trafficked cocaine.
In this close-knit community, police adopt a relaxed approach to visitors smoking spliffs on the street because the local economy relies on income from these pleasure-seeking tourists.
Corruption is rife, cops are in the pay of powerful crime lords, so the long arm of the law occasionally fails to take a gloved hand out of its pockets.
Cold Pursuit centres on a grief-stricken father, who strikes back against the criminal fraternity which murdered his son.
Liam Neeson’s portrayal of the vengeance-seeking patriarch is less muscular than his bruising heroics in the Taken films.
He is an awkward fit for a film, which slaloms at dizzying speed between lurid violence and gallows humour.
Baldwin’s script leaves supporting characters in the deep freeze so it is hard to muster warmth and affection when they become collateral damage.
Cold Pursuit caters to the base desires of Neeson’s core fanbase with bone-crunching fist fights and a shoot out, albeit with a hero who collapses exhausted, gasping for breath, after each exertion.