Film review: ‘RETRIBUTION’, by Nick Gardener from ‘Built For Speed’
Retribution is another entry in that paranoid action movie sub-genre, the Liam Neeson film. As many will now be familiar, the formula for these films involves Liam as a seemingly ordinary guy suddenly being thrust into a deadly situation where he’s trapped in some form of transport with a mysterious fiend sending him cryptic messages and threatening to kill people and make it look like Liam is responsible. The filmmakers haven’t fiddled too much with the formula in the familiar, predictable but still fairly taut and moderately satisfying thriller, Retribution.
This time, Liam plays wealthy hedge fund manager Matt Turner who lives in a clinical modernist house in an upscale part of Berlin with his wife Heather (Embeth Davidtz, Bridget Jones Diary), sullen teenage son Zach (Jack Champion, Miles ‘Spider’ Soccoro from Avatar: The Way of Water) and precocious tween daughter Heather (Lily Aspil). While taking the kids to school, he finds himself trapped in, guess what, a life-threatening situation. A creepy villain who seems to have watched the film Speed too many times, calls to let Matt know he can see his every move and if he doesn’t follow his instructions he will blow up Matt and his children via bombs placed under the driver’s car seat. As they hurtle through the Berlin streets, Matt tries to concoct ways to outsmart the murderous caller.
This is meat and taters action filmmaking and there’s almost nothing here we haven’t seen in dozens of other movies. If this was the 90’s it would have been Harrison Ford in the car. Despite the fact that various people are blown up and Matt’s innocent family are in constant peril, because it’s so familiar, this largely amounts to cinematic comfort food. Thinking about the film in that context, it’s watchable enough, efficiently constructed and not completely full of holes. Still, a little more invention would have been welcome and director Nimrod Antal (whose work I’ve only seen before in the ‘Spinal Tappishly’ named concert film/ thriller Metallica: Through the Never) and screenwriter Chris Salmanpour could have at least attempted to not make it completely obvious who the villain is.
Given this film’s limited and pulpy aspirations, performances are mostly pretty solid. Liam Neeson, who occupies the frame for much of this film, is of course a pro and still manages to give his character a hint of charisma through his mix of ruggedness and everyman vulnerability. As his children, Champion and Davidtz are tolerable enough although Liam’s interaction with them mostly involves squabbling which becomes a little annoying. Matthew Modine produces his usual class in the role of Matt’s boss while Noma Dumezweni, a fine actor with an extensive resumé in British TV (as well as recent film roles like Little Mermaid’s Queen Selina) delivers a slightly strange performance as the lead detective chasing Matt and his children with her character refusing to listen to anything Matt says.
Retribution is fairly disposable genre product but with generally decent performances and production values and a sufficient number of explosions, it should tick most boxes for those wanting undemanding fast food cinema.
Nick’s rating: ***
Genre: Drama/ Action/ Thriller.
Classification: M.
Director(s): Nimród Antal.
Release date: 21st Sept 2023.
Running time: 90 mins.
Reviewer: Nick Gardener can be heard on “Built For Speed” every Friday night from 8-10pm on 88.3 Southern FM.