Set in Boston, the film follows a former boxer turned low level enforcer (Liam Neeson) working for local crime boss Charlie Connor (Ron Perlman). After he starts forgetting things, the enforcer goes to a doctor who informs him that a lifetime of taking continuous blows to the head has left him with CTE. With no treatment or medicine available and an unclear estimation of how much time he has left, the enforcer starts preparing to get his affairs in order including re-establishing contact with his estranged daughter Rosie (Frankie Shaw).
Absolution is the latest vehicle for Liam Neeson who in over the past 20 years has become synonymous with these mid budgeted thrillers and crime films that while not the blockbusters they were 20 years ago are still profitable thanks to "downstream revenues" (streaming rights, international sales, etc.). Absolution sees Neeson reteaming with director Hans Petter Moland after the two collaborated on Cold Pursuit (remade from Moland's own In Order of Disappearance) and written by writer Joe Gayton. Despite being marketed as another Neeson fronted action film, absolution is really more of a noir tinged drama with some genre elements that while more ambitious than some films he's done isn't all that successful.
As per usual Neeson is playing a very standard "seasoned tough guy" as his career has taken a route previously taken by actors such as Charles Bronson, but there is at least an attempt to give him something as he plays a character slowly losing his cognitive faculties and now taking stock of his less than admirable life. The scenes where he's struggling to remember things like his dead son or what he actually intended to do are the highlights of the film and it honestly makes me wish the movie had just ditched the well worn thriller/noir trappings and been more of a character drama as it really wants to be. During the first two thirds Absolution juggles many different plot elements like his relationship with a woman played by Yolonda Ross (who disappears after the second act), the jobs he's running for Charlie Connor, or a recurring dream sequence involving his father and a boat that just feels really out of place. Once we're in the third act it basically just gives up and becomes a standard Neeson rampage but by that point those who came expecting it may feel it's too little too late while those invested in the character drama will be disappointed that it doesn't really payoff. If you want to see a movie like this that's a character study of a degenerative brain disease with crime thriller elements, you're really better off just watching Knox Goes Away from earlier this year as it did a better job of combing the two elements (with some minor missteps) and actually felt like a more fully formed vision.
Absolution tries to add a little something extra to the well worn conveyor of Liam Neeson led genre films but it's such a rough mixture of haphazard character drama and noir cliches without doing either well enough to warrant even a minimal recommendation. If you want this kind of movie but better, just watch Knox Goes Away.
