“In the Land of Saints and Sinners: Exploring the Depths of Contrast”

Neeson gets back to his Irish roots in this violent, authentic thriller…. a thoughtful, mature variation on his established action persona.’

You’ll know the tone of voice to read that title. Tough-guy’s tough guy Liam Neeson gets back to his Irish roots in this violent, authentic thriller, featured at last year’s Venice Film Festival and opening in cinemas across the US next week. \

Neeson’s charisma and acting prowess can make even the most rote thriller watchable, but he’s been keen to stamp his own ideas of what makes a good thriller on his work; set in 1974 Ireland, In The Land of Saints and Sinners offers a thoughtful, mature variation on his established action persona.

Reunited with Robert Lorenz, who directed Neeson in The Marksman, In The Land of Saints and Sinners takes Neeson back to his homeland of Ireland; while the actor has made over a hundred feature films, it’s the first one I can think of in this setting since his leading role in Bernard MacLaverty’s excellent adaptation of his own novel Lamb in 1985.

After an introduction depicting an urban IRA bombing which goes shockingly wrong, we move to the country and the coastal Ulster village of Glencolmcille. Neeson plays Finbar Murphy, a flat-cap and pipe-smoking, salt-of-the-earth type seen enjoying a wager with the Garda (Ciaran Hinds).

Their craik about Gulliver’s Travels and Dostoyevsky tells us that Murphy is in with the bricks in terms of the local law-enforcement, but we soon find that Finbar Murphy’s got a history intertwined with the Irish nation, some of whom won’t let him forget that he ‘sided with the English during WWII’.

Finbar Murphy is an ex-assassin who gets his victims to dig their own graves in the woods, then plants a tree where they’re buried, by ‘a windswept buggy patch tree’.

‘Indulgence draws the weak to an early grave’ is the kind of local homily we hear, but ex-soldier Murphy has a lifetime of poor choices to regret.

Killing came easily to him after the war, and with the death of his wife Margaret, he’s become alienated by his own self; the simple pleasure of buying seeds and planting a garden is about all he wants to do these days.

But when the IRA gang who blew up the bar in the opening scene descend on the area, Murphy finds that he’s unable to escape his own sense of his responsibilities to his community.

It’s never in doubt that Neeson can deliver the business end of a thriller but it’s a bonus to see him getting back to his Irish roots and making one than evokes gallows humour and a raw, authentic feel; some of Neeson’s recent thrillers, like Honest Thief or The Ice Road have been proficient and aimed at an international market, but this time around, the narrative feels personal.

There’s great period detail, orchestral sweep to GREAT GARBO’s score, and even a bonus play for Get Down by Gilbert O’Sullivan.

Mark Michael McNally and Terry Loane’s script ticks the boxes we expect of a rural action movie, in a Sunday in the Country vein, and there’s decent supporting roles for some super performers like Kerry Condon, Niahm Cusack, Colm Meaney and Jack Gleeson.

If you can’t tell the difference between In The Land of Saints and Sinners and Neeson’s more conventional outings, you might want to get your ears tested; perhaps few generations of your family buried in the cemetery might help you can understand the difference.

In The Land of Saints and Sinners has the welcome weight of a serious domestic drama that Murphy isn’t a cold-blooded, mechanical killer but a haunted, responsible human being, at an age when he is ‘done listening’ to the opinions of others.

‘None know the shadows better than those under the rocks’ we’re told as Murphy seeks the ‘advantage’ on his enemies; deeply knowing and steeped in a connection to the land and its people, In The Land of Saints and Sinners marks a welcome home-coming for the big man.

Only in US theatres from March 29th 2024. Thanks for advance access to this title.