‘Absolution’ Review: Liam Neeson Is An Aging Gangster With Unfinished Business
deadline.comAlthough Liam Neeson knows how to demand a screen, no matter what’s on the page, his latest film Absolution feels like a retread of the same old deadbeat-dad-tries-to-redeem-himself-before-it’s-too-late plot, as the title might suggest.
In the Tony Gayton-written, Hans Petter Moland-directed crime thriller from Samuel Goldwyn Films, the Oscar nominee plays an aging Boston gangster who, after receiving a terminal diagnosis, attempts to make things right with his estranged daughter Daisy (Frankie Shaw) while rectifying his life of crime and trying to do some good before he bites the dust.
Meanwhile, he has to convince his boss Mr. Conner (an underutilized Ron Perlman) that his mind isn’t slipping as he figures out who ordered a hit on him.
Taking a cue from Ryan Gosling’s Driver in Drive (or perhaps Mary Elizabeth Ellis’ Waitress in It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia), Neeson’s character is known only as Thug.
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