Liam Neeson’s character was diagnosed by a doctor with CTE
Scenario
An aging gangster tries to reconnect with his children and right the wrongs of the past, but the criminal underworld won’t let go of its grip willingly. Liam Neeson started boxing at the age of 9 and fought amateur until he was 17. A definitive diagnosis of CTE can only be made by examining brain tissue after a person’s death. This diagnosis should have been presumptive, and other options and possible treatments should have been explored.
References Jurski Park (1993)
Thug: Were you born without a filter? Or is this something you had to work on? Lucky NumberWritten by Lene Lovich, Les Chappell (as Leslie Chappell)Performed by Lene LovichLicensed by Oval Music and Oval Sounds (PRS). Set in Boston, the film follows a former boxer turned low-level enforcer (Liam Neeson) working for local crime boss Charlie Connor (Ron Perlman).
After starting to forget things, the enforcer goes to a doctor who informs him that a lifetime of being hit in the head has left him with a CTE
With no treatment or medication available and no clear estimate of how much time he has left, the enforcer begins to prepare to get his affairs in order, including reestablishing contact with his estranged daughter, Rosie (Frankie Shaw). Absolution is the latest vehicle from Liam Neeson, who over the past 20 years has become synonymous with mid-budget thrillers and crime films that, while not the box office hits they were 20 years ago, are still profitable thanks to “downstream revenue” (streaming rights, international sales, etc.). Absolution sees Neeson reuniting with director Hans Petter Moland after the two collaborated on Cold Pursuit (a remake of Moland’s own In Order of Disappearance) and written by writer Joe Gayton. While billed as another Neeson-directed action film, Absolution is actually more of a noir-tinged drama with some genre elements that, while more ambitious than some of the films he’s directed, aren’t as successful.
Once we get into the third act, he basically gives up and becomes a standard Neeson rager, but by this point, those expecting it may feel like it’s too little, too late, while those invested in the character drama will be disappointed; it doesn’t really pay off
As usual, Neeson plays a very standard “seasoned tough guy” as his career has followed a path previously trodden by actors like Charles Bronson, but there’s at least an attempt to give him something as he plays a character who is slowly losing his cognitive faculties and is now taking stock of his less-than-admirable life. The scenes where he struggles to remember things like his dead son or what he really intended to do are the highlights of the film and honestly make me wish the film had abandoned the well-worn thriller/noir trappings and been more of a drama; a character you actually want to be. For the first two-thirds, Absolution juggles a lot of different plot elements, like his relationship with a woman played by Yolonda Ross (who disappears after the second act), the missions he carries out for Charlie Connor, and a recurring dream sequence involving his father and a boat that seems really out of place. If you want to see a movie like this that’s a character study of a degenerative brain disease with elements of a crime thriller, you’re better off watching Knox Goes Away from earlier this year, because it did a better job of combining the two elements (with a few minor missteps) and it really felt like a more rounded vision.
If you want that kind of movie but better, watch Knox Goes Away
Absolution tries to add a little something extra to the well-worn assembly line of Liam Neeson-led genre films, but it’s such a crude mix of random character drama and noir clichés without doing either well enough to warrant a minimal recommendation.
