Enjoyable, pulpy Neeson thriller set amid Ireland’s Troubles in ’74
At this point, it’s hack to refer to Liam Neeson’s “very particular set of skills,” but there’s no denying that the actor has made his bread and butter parlaying just that in the past 15 years, playing variations on a theme in an array of B-movie thrillers.
Neeson has enacted bloody revenge on a train, on a plane, in the snow, on a ranch, and now, in his native land, with “In the Land of Saints and Sinners,” a thriller set in Ireland during the Troubles, directed by Robert Lorenz, Clint Eastwood’s producer, and the director of the 2021 Neeson film “The Marksman.”
We open in Belfast, Northern Ireland, in 1974, just moments before a car bombing takes six lives, including those of several children. The perpetrators, a group of Irish Republican Army foot soldiers, beat a hasty retreat for the small village of Glencolmcille in County Donegal, Ireland.
It just so happens to be the same place where seasoned gunfighter Finbar Murphy (Neeson) has been trying to retire from a secretive life as a hit man.
With the baddies roughing up the residents, Finbar has to put his talents to use one final time to protect the homestead.
This unique geographic, historical and political milieu confers a certain intrigue to otherwise familiar fare, but the story itself is pure Western, the classic genre explicitly referenced in the plaintive score by the Baldenwegs (Diego, Nora and Lionel), and in the seasoned narrative beats of the script by Mark Michael McNally and Terry Loane.
Colm Meaney co-stars as Finbar’s broker, Ciarán Hinds, the local Garda unaware of his friend’s line of work, and Jack Gleeson
(“Game of Thrones”) is unrecognizable as a merry young hit man with a blackly Irish sense of humor.
But the most terrifying person on screen is Kerry Condon, playing the steely IRA warrior Doireann McCann (possibly inspired by the notorious Dolours Price), the leader of the gang who has brought her cohort to Glencolmcille. When her loathsome brother Curtis (Desmond Eastwood) goes missing, Doireann emerges from hiding with vengeance in her heart.
Condon was nominated for an Academy Award for her role in Martin McDonagh’s 2022 film “The Banshees of Inisherin,” which took a metaphorical approach to Irish strife.
“In the Land of Saints and Sinners,” though, is direct and obvious. This longtime national conflict comes home to roost in the village, and while the hero and antagonist are far more similar than they think, sharing the same kind of
fierce loyalty to their loved ones and personal beliefs, their goals put them at odds with each other. The political conflict is simple yet abstracted from the blood that soaks the streets of Glencolmcille.
There’s no real profound political commentary in the movie, the setting providing the background and plot stakes. This is a true Western tale set among the island’s rolling green hills, the landscape captured beautifully by cinematographer Tom Stern.
Condon is utterly captivating as the brutal Doireann, and no one plays a valiantly chagrined hero like Neeson, sorrowful and suffering.
In the “Neeson’s Skills” canon, “In the Land of Saints and Sinners” proves to be a gem, the performances elevating this enjoyably pulpy thriller.
MPA rating: R (for violence and language throughout) Running time: 1:46
How to watch: In theaters March 29