Run All Night (2015)
Certified: 15
Duration: 114 minutes
Directed by: Jaume Collet-Serra
Starring: Liam Neeson, Joel Kinnaman, Common, Ed Harris, Génesis Rodríguez, Vincent D’Onofrio, Boyd Holbrook, Holt McCallany, Malcolm Goodwin
KRS Releasing Ltd
Jimmy Conlon (Liam Neeson) is a hitman in New York City, who has a very strong relationship with his boss and childhood friend Shawn Maguire (Ed Harris). Many, including Detective Harding (Vincent D’Onofrio) have tried to pin him down but to no avail.
Jimmy’s life has not been easy as his lifestyle has led to him being isolated from everyone, including his son Mike (Joel Kinnaman). The latter wants to become a boxer but currently works as a limousine driver and has two daughters, a pregnant wife, Gabriela (Genesis Rodriguez), and young Curtis Banks, aka Legs (Aubrey Joseph), under his wing.
Trouble crops up in the form of Danny (Boyd Holbrook), Shawn’s son, who wants his father to back him on a heroin operation. When this goes wrong, Danny kills both dealer and partner.
Legs and Mike escape but this leads to a situation where Jimmy ends up killing Danny, and that brings him into the scope of his boss and friend Shawn who will stop at nothing to kill Jimmy and his son. So he brings on another hitman, Andrew Price (Common), in order to clean up the scene.
Neeson seems to be churning out dark gritty thrillers as if they were popcorn. Run All Night is the third feature film directed by the Spanish Jaume Collet-Serra after the successful Unkown (2011) and Non-Stop (2014).
The movie’s pacing is fast and meant to leave you breathless as it chases its plotting which can be a bit too smug for its own liking. Neeson has trademarked and cornered the revenge and redemption thriller and made it his own niche. He heroically stands tall and you inherently cheer him on.
It’s the kind of film that action fans will like, not just for the action but more so for its emotional core and fervour.
It knows its audience and knows how to make them willing partners in crime by tugging the right emotional chords.
This time around I found this Neeson thriller to be even more interesting as the production has placed a worthy adversary in the form of Harris. This veteran actor can place buckets of inherent threat on a single syllable.
It’s interesting to see him fill the shoes of Shawn, a powerful man, who does not like his son but will do all it takes to avenge him, including going after his best friend.
When the two actors are in the same frame or sequence, the camera loves it and captures every resonating emotional wave that comes out from the two veteran actors.
Another interesting aspect of Run All Night is that there is no budding romance, no damsel in distress to save and fall in love with by the end of the night. But there is a son to be reclaimed, a son to reconnect with.
This thriller is steps ahead of the latest Taken instalments and its forte lies in the male bonding relationship between the characters of Jimmy and Mike.
Mark Ruhe’s charged-up cinematography gives the film and its New York environment an extra sheen.