Dealing with a deadly ailment and being in the twilight of his criminal career, a father seeks redemption by looking for a daughter he abandoned and, at the same time, finds love. Absolution has an unnamed Liam Neeson in a tight spot performing a character study instead of cutting the scene with his trigger finger which is a present mid-tension but slow action-paced context. The shattered members of the ensemble try difficultly to lock their relationship with each other, while its surroundings are dominated by drab and stark misery dealing the blameless. There are some slow parts in the story that breaks the flow but presents several twist that hits the guts. People with expectation for the film to be a shoot’em down action have a treat in something more than the action and the also the emotional nature of the film.
The film starts off with a view of Neeson while doing what he does best, that is working as muscle for Boston drug lord Charlie Conner’s son Kyle who’s hyped up on coke (Daniel Diemer). Further, after they meeting to ‘discuss’ things in NY, the soldier can hardly recall any specifics. He’s bewildered as he emerges from his car and heads toward the shore. He forgets his residence. It is a tower in the area that jogs his memory. Later, he returns to his break and ruin house, pours jag, and instantly begins to get hammered. It appears that the drive and the depression somehow allow him to perform. The bodyguard travelled the distance to the bar and completed the task he had stated he would. He quickly kills his henchman, who was manhandling a lady (Yolonda Ross).
Still, the next day he suffers from some memory problems. He has been getting progressively worse, he as grudgingly admitted, after freezing while extracting cash and drugs from a shady doctor. The pharmacist then proposes to him that he go see a specialist without delay. A few days later at the medical facility, he flinches hearing the bad forecast. The thug was diagnosed with stage CTE (Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy) which is a fully degenerative cerebral disease and in few time be a cripple followed by death. He had to settle all issues, does he have anybody who is that close to him to assist him in any way?
The strongest aspects of the film, Absolution, is its multilayered characters development. Hans Petter Moland is Norwegian director, who has already worked with Neeson in Cold Pursuit and gathers details regarding the thug’s life in order to delve into exposition. Neeson is tough looking: sporting a dusty leather jacket with side burns, a mustache, and driving a gangster looking 1970’s, bright red Chevrolet Chevelle SS. The bodyguard goes for a boxing gym with some delusions of trying to reminisce the past and its highs. Not even close to the fighters half his age in prowess, he nonetheless stays on his feet even after being struck and forced into a flow of blood. It is quite simple, for instance, to deduct what’s the problem with the brain.
The story is centered upon two female supporting characters. One of them, Yolando Ross, has never been named, is a character who evolves as one of the protagonists. She was involved with someone on a single night stand urge gone awry as she became a part of spinning out one cog of a saw blade head. Her chains of drinking and smoking cover an emaciatingly fragile woman who yearns for peace. As both with the flaws that they see in each other they intertwine in blanket, she feels safe in the arms of the bodyguard. Neither of them are under the misconception that they will get a happy ending together but enjoy being together at that point in time. They are a pair of individuals hanging on together, not at the edge but at the edge of a razor. Nesson and Ross have an unexpected resonance that is really worth watching.
Daisy, the enforcer’s daughter, is played by Frankie Shaw who also co-stars in the film. She fits the role beautifully as a woman trying to balance life raising a child all on her own with pursuing hope from untrustworthy men. Earlier, Liam Neeson’s character had been quite surprised to learn that he had two grandchildren. However, Daisy does not appreciate that. He was a horrible parent, hardly present in her life and she is not going to just welcome him back. However, she is not vicious or nasty by any means, either. Daisy knows her biracial son Tre (Terrance Pullman) is inquisitive about his elusive grandfather and why he has been absent. For her, however, the latter seems to be a dilemma. As a child, her son is looking for a father figure. But Daisy has a clue who her father is and what his work entails and will not let him affect Tre.
The script written by Tony Gayton (The Salton Sea, Faster), however, starts to suffer a little overreach embattled by competing subplots. With the father’s health failing, issues within the family, and even a girlfriend’s troubles; it is further complicated by strange dream sequences involving Daisy’s dead brother and Kyle’s conceited quest to prove he is gangster. What gayton does with the kiwi is even more alarming, as it could have been a story in its own right. This brings us directly to the biggest disadvantage of Absolution The movie runs for over a 120minute. At times it feels like the rate at which molasses flows backwards. Moland spends excessive time in the wrong places.
Absolution manages to pull itself together by the obligatory over-the-top gory finale. The characters inhabit an unmerciful universe that spares none. Gayton is also to be commended for throwing in some so-called fireworks that one surely would not see coming. Absolution may test your patience, but without doubt deserves to be recommended due to strong casting and unpredictability at the right time. To say the least the final act is not a pretty sight.
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