ABSOLUTION (2024) - Mark Reviews Movies

Absolution, Samuel Goldwyn Films

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Review by Mark Dujsik | October 31, 2024

When Liam Neeson's unnamed thug first appears in Absolution, we immediately think this movie is a period piece. The character's car, dress, and facial hair look as if they come from the 1970s, but soon enough, more people, calling this man a relic, and things enter this story, revealing that it's the modern day. Our man, though, is stuck in the past—in more ways than his clothes and those sideburns.

Neeson's presence also gives us the impression that director Hans Petter Moland's movie might focus on action, since this is about Boston criminals doing shady deals and the actor's later career has turned him into a star of genre vehicles. Recently, though, Neeson has pulled away from the role of action star, even in movies that look to be or operate in that way, and his performance in this movie is no exception to that trend. He punches, kicks, and shoots a few times as the story progresses, but this character has reached a point in his life in which he realizes how much of that life has been wasted on violence, anger, and doing things for other violent, angry men without question.

This is a surprisingly introspective story about a guy who wants to change, but he's constantly reminded that he has screwed up his life so much that no one else wants him to or cares that he does want to. He really is stuck, and making matters worse, he's losing his memory because of all the hits he has taken since his childhood with an angry and abusive father, as a professional boxer, and, of course, as a low-end thug for a local crime boss.

Here's where things in Tony Gayton's screenplay become a bit too convoluted for their own good. It's not enough, apparently, that this character is trapped in a private hell of his circumstances and own devising. That's not a catchy-enough gimmick, it seems, so Neeson's thug is also diagnosed with CTE, caused by multiple concussions from playing football or boxing or getting beat up everywhere one goes. There are scenes in which he can't remember his family, his criminal associates, his phone number and address, and, presumably, the fact that he's on a mission to fix whatever good things he might have left in his life before it's too late.

The condition is mostly a distraction in this story, used to drag out certain plot threads—mostly to do with the criminal underworld stuff, which is the most familiar and least interesting element of the narrative—and to add something tangible to the stakes for this character. He's basically on a timer to figure out what he needs to do to correct whatever he can, before his memory fades more and the time arrives when, according to the doctor, he's incapacitated. Nothing will matter to him at that point.

It's all just a bit too much for a story that's mostly about looking back on one's life and realizing it's all trauma, guilt, regret, and too many mistakes to keep track of in the little notebook the thug keeps to remind him of things. All of that is engaging, especially since Neeson's performance is so subdued and filled with inner turmoil, but for some reason, too many movies have stopped trusting that stories about characters are enough. There must be some kind of gimmick, and this one gets in the way more than it enlightens about this protagonist or complements the list of far more compelling things about him.

The core of this tale, which follows the thug as he takes on another job from his boss Charlie (Ron Perlman) and tries to reconnect with his daughter Daisy (Frankie Shaw), has plenty to offer without the memory-loss conceit. In terms of the family stuff, his daughter wants nothing to do with him, because he abandoned his family long ago and has been so absent that no one thought it was worth telling him that his son died a few years ago. The thug also spends time with his grandson Dre (Terrence Pulliam), trying to teach the kid the things he wished he had known growing up.

The stuff he did learn from his upbringing comes to light by way of conversations with Daisy (She notes the line of a particular type of man in her family tree) and a recurring dream, in which the thug's dead father (played by Josh Drennen) takes him fishing. The son asks, "Are you still angry?" The father replies that he's not, and there's a haunting quality to the notion that only one thing can put an end to this psychological cycle of passing on pain and rage from generation to generation. An unexpected romance with a woman (played by Yolonda Ross) the thug meets at a bar offers a bit of hope, until the man falls back on his usual behavior.

A subplot with the thug's most recent criminal job does go somewhere slightly unanticipated, too, as he has to directly face the pain he caused in that other side of his life. At its best, Absolution offers a fine character study within the confines of a routine genre exercise, but the filmmakers seem to believe in the potential of that story. They keep adding and adding complications, until it detracts from our view of the sad, lonely character at its center.

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