Die Easy

The trailer of Liam Neeson’s latest movie is rather misleading.  With scenes of Neeson exacting revenge on the bad guys responsible for his son’s death in ever more creative ways, the impression I – and no doubt others – got from it was that it’s yet another typical run-of-the-mill cheesy Liam Neeson action potboiler; you know, the kind that Neeson’s made a name for himself in such movies as ‘Taken,’ ‘Non-Stop,’ ‘Run All Night,’ ‘A Walk Among the Tombstones’ and ‘The Commuter.’ So imagine my surprise when I found that ‘Cold Pursuit’ is something else altogether, not to mention being one of Neeson’s best in recent memory.

 

Directed by the virtually unknown Norwegian director Hans Petter Moland, much of what ‘Cold Pursuit’ conveyed is just how frigidly cold its setting (a ski resort town outside of Denver) is.  The movie’s cinematography reminds me of ‘Fargo,’ Joel and Ethan Coen’s Oscar winner starring Frances McDormand over 20 years ago.  In ‘Cold Pursuit,’ Neeson plays mild-mannered and upright “citizen of the year” Nelson Coxman, a snowplow driver content in his humble existence clearing snowdrifts off of highways every morning until his only son died of an apparent heroin overdose.  What follows is a blood-soaked one-man quest for vengeance all the way to the top of a criminal empire.  Or is it?

 

‘Cold Pursuit’ and ‘Fargo’ are similar in more than just their cold climes.  In fact, they share the same DNA in tone and style.  Both are pulpy fun and darkly humorous in the tradition of Quentin Tarantino, with a large cast of dubious but entertaining characters many of whose untimely demise are given a brief on-screen epitaph.  While there’s a familiarity in ‘Cold Pursuit,’ it is a pleasing and enjoyable familiarity that lends this film a certain charm.

Grade: A-