Movie Review: Run All Night (2015)

Genre: Action Thriller  

Director: Jaume Collet-Serra  

Starring: Liam Neeson, Ed Harris, Joel Kinnaman, Vincent D'Onofrio, Common, Nick Nolte, Genesis Rodriguez, Boyd Holbrook, Bruce McGill  

Running Time: 114 minutes  

Synopsis: In New York City, Jimmy (Liam Neeson) is an aging hitman working for his life-long friend, mobster Shawn Maguire (Ed Harris). Shawn's unhinged son Danny (Boyd Holbrook) instigates a bloodbath witnessed by Jimmy's estranged son Mike (Joel Kinnaman), a limousine driver and family man who wants nothing to do with his father. Over one long night, Jimmy has to protect Mike and his family from Shawn's wrath, a corrupt police force, and a professional assassin (Common), while police Detective Harding (Vincent D'Onofrio) tries to pick up the pieces.

What Works Well: The father-son redemption story is elevated by an exceptional cast in top form. In the interludes between uncompromising action set-pieces, Liam Neeson and Ed Harris share several scenes full of sorrow, lament, the weight of history, and an understanding of a looming fate. Neeson's Jimmy is increasingly unable to hide from the ghosts of his victims, but now finds a purpose in a mission to rescue his son and maybe get a glimpse of family life. Director Jaume Collet-Serra adds style by cutting through the darkness with glistening swoopiness.

What Does Not Work As Well: Many of the action scenes are prolonged beyond what is necessary, including a long-winded car pursuit, a chaotic search-and-escape through a large apartment complex, and a subway station hide-and-seek sequence. In contrast, several interesting secondary characters including Mike's wife (Genesis Rodriguez) and Jimmy's brother (Nick Nolte) and mother (Lois Smith) are short changed.

Key Quote:

Jimmy: It's your regrets that haunt you in your final moments. Everything you've failed to be. Everyone you let down. Everything you'd go back and change, if only you had more time.

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Movie Review: The Secrets We Keep (2020)

Genre: Drama Thriller  

Director: Yuval Adler  

Starring: Noomi Rapace, Joel Kinnaman, Chris Messina, Amy Seimetz  

Running Time: 97 minutes  

Synopsis: It's the late 1950s, and Romanian Maja (Noomi Rapace) is still haunted by her European wartime experiences, although she is now settled in a quiet town in the United States with her husband Doctor Lewis Reid (Chris Messina). Maja spots refinery worker Thomas Steinman (Joel Kinnaman), a newcomer in town, and is convinced he is actually Karl, a Nazi unit member who abused her in the final days of World War Two. Maja's quest for revenge will upturn her life.

What Works Well: This study of the past haunting the present is brimming with layers of secrets and emotional conflict, both within characters and between them, as the plot boldly seeks surprises and challenging paths. Noomi Rapace delivers a powerhouse performance of quiet rage, determination, and clashing motivations. The other cast members also do well, with Joel Kinnaman jealously guarding the question of guilt, and Amy Seimetz (as Thomas' wife Rachel) growing in prominence as Maja widens her search for the truth.

What Does Not Work As Well: Several plot details are questionable, including a sudden turn to violence by seemingly peaceful characters, gunshots not raising alarm on a quiet street, and the erratic actions of Maja's husband Lewis. The final twist favours shock value over character coherence, leading to an abrupt ending that fails to balance build-up with release.

Conclusion: Small towns can shelter big secrets.



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Movie Review: The Informer (2019)

A gritty drama and thriller, The Informer maintains low key intensity but is hampered by loose plotting and some disinterested performances.

In New York City, ex-convict Pete Koslow (Joel Kinnaman) is working as a mole for FBI Agent Erica Wilcox (Rosamund Pike) to infiltrate the fentanyl empire of Polish mobster The General (Eugene Lipinski). Erica's boss Keith Montgomery (Clive Owen) gives the go-ahead for a sting operation to arrest The General, but it all goes wrong and undercover New York police detective Gomez is killed.

To clean up the mess, The General wants Pete to serve time and seize control of the drug trade from within the prison system. Erica and Keith pressure Pete into accepting the deal, and he is forced to leave his wife Sofia (Ana de Armas) and young daughter and head back behind bars. Meanwhile NYPD detective Grens (Common) is oblivious to the FBI operation and just wants to know who killed his partner Gomez. Pete is soon facing dangers and betrayals from all sides.

A thriller that dares to forgo routine car chases and shoot-outs, The Informer deserves credit for adopting a reticent approach to the conundrums of one man caught in the grey world between hardened criminals and heartless government agencies. But Italian director and co-writer Andrea Di Stefano can only take the material so far: the script is both short of depth and too happy to gloss over essentials, while all the supporting roles are underwritten and performed with bored blankness by actors who should know better.

In the lead role Joel Kinnaman as Pete Koslow is eminently watchable and fully invested, bringing plenty of intensity and humanity to the drama. But Rosamund Pike, Clive Owen and Common have much less to work with and go through the motions, their level of engagement scrambling towards television levels. Ana de Armas is only marginally better.

Regardless of performances, The Informer's fundamental weaknesses reside in a gap-filled and pacing-challenged script that barely sketches out what the General wants Pete to do in prison, much less how agents Wilcox and Montgomery co-opt that plan for their own purpose. Once behind bars Pete is sidetracked into a squished prison drama with all the usual cliches, including racially segregated cabals, corrupt guards, inmate-on-inmate violence, and bad guys doling out their brand of vengeance. Some drugs and scribbled lists change hands to usher in a much less than convincing climax.

Despite decent ambition, The Informer is an eager mole betrayed by substantive holes.



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