Cold Pursuit review

With the exception of Taken 3, I've enjoyed pretty much every Liam Neeson post-Taken action/thriller. Taken 2, Unknown, Run All Night, Non-Stop, The Commuter; none impressed me as much as Taken, but I pretty much enjoyed them all. So of course I was on-board for Cold Pursuit as soon as I heard his name. It turned out to be a bit of a different beast however.

There's moments in Cold Pursuit that are classic "Neeson thriller", but overall that's not what this film is about, and if you go into it expecting to see Liam Neeson single-handedly beating the crap out of armies of thugs, you will be disappointed. Liam Neeson's character Nels Coxman does NOT have a particular set of skills, unless of course you count driving a snowplow.

No, Cold Pursuit is not really an action movie. I'm not sure I'd call it a thriller either. If I had to give it a label, I'd describe it as a crime-comedy. And when I say "comedy", I'm talking dark comedy: if you don't think people dying in stupid ways is funny, then this might not be the movie for you.

Personally, once I understood what I was dealing with, I was able to sit back and enjoy the film for what it is. It doesn't hurt that the story is fundamentally a good one. This is a movie about the cyclical nature of violence, about the dangers of seeking revenge. That's not to say it's preachy or anything; the subtext is there if you want to think about it, but it's not obtrusive for those who aren't looking for a morality tale.

I found many of the characters entertaining, with more depth than I might have expected, and the actors did a great job of bringing them to life. Liam Neeson was fun as always, and I would say he got to show a bit more range here than in his standard thriller roles. Tom Bateman was great as the characterful Viking, and playing opposite him Julia Jones was a force of nature as Aya. I loved Willaim Forsythe's performance as Brock, Tom Jackson brought a suitable sense of gravitas to White Bull, Nicholas Holmes brought surprising depth to the role of the young Ryan, and as always I enjoyed watching Michael Eklund die.


Subjectively I would rate this film 8/10. It doesn't have the size or spectacle of the kind of film that I tend to make time for these days, but I think it does what it set out to do very well, and I at least enjoyed it.

#####SPOILER WARNING#####

In retrospect I think the first clue that this film is a comedy is the fact that we see Liam Neeson running around with a cut-down bolt-action rifle with the scope still attached. It was right there in front of us the whole time!