I loved The Commuter! After kissing so many frogs, Unknown, Cold Pursuit, A Walk Among the Tombstones, I found a Liam Neeson movie that I enjoyed as much if not more than Taken. By the same team that brought you Non-Stop, which was probably the first draft of this movie, but on a plane, Jaume Collet-Serra and his muse, Neeson, team up once again for an action thriller. Ordinary every guy, not an approaching senior citizen built like a wall, has a bad day that just gets worse when he gets an offer that he cannot refuse and ends up putting himself, his family and the passengers on his commuter rail in danger.
I made fun of Non-Stop for having Airport ambitions, but none of the absurd kitschy sense of humor. While The Commuter may not be filled with star power cameos, it definitely has that same vibe of getting completely invested in the protagonist and his fellow passengers that you actually care about what happens to them. The opening sequence totally worked for me in establishing his routine when he is alone, with his son then his family. It was better than Ordinary Love in the way that the montage over seasons established the dynamic of all his relationships. Congratulations, you succeeded making me believe that Neeson is a normal guy.
Then The Commuter lets us get to know him as the familiar stranger. As a nine-year, one-time commuter rail passenger, these moments are realistic except I did not know anyone’s names, but you do know their patterns and develop a kind of camaraderie. Also I got a lot of reading done-books and weekly New Yorkers. Setting it in New York City sealed the deal because I love New York and generally award extra points for simply referencing my hometown. I loved the radio station touch. Even though it was filmed on a sound stage, knowing some of the stops immediately helped me to visualize the exact location of the train and made it more real.
The Commuter gives us the best prose dump ever at work so that we understand that even though his life seems comfortable, he is just like us-in a financial precarious situation. Collet-Serra really takes his time establishing the atmosphere before shaking things up with the appearance of the second and third most famous actors. If you are like me and watch a lot of movies, you will immediately see one of these people and know that he is trouble, not to be trusted. It is also the point when you realize that Neeson’s character, though completely ordinary, may have a special set of skills if needed.
Vera Farmiga is a brilliant casting choice. There is something in her tone that is simultaneously comforting and upsetting. Is she nuts or your new favorite person? She is so warm and gentle, but also has an off-kilter familiarity that could be unsettling if you do not know her. She is only in The Commuter for six minutes, but she makes the whole scenario feel plausible. Any woman watching the movie will immediately be suspicious because who gets on a train carrying absolutely nothing yet her clothes shows no bulges or visual evidence that she has pockets. Now THAT is power. The whole atmosphere is very Hitchcockian light and delightful. Do not mistake the following for complaining, but this film is set during 2016. Was it an accident that we got a suspicious woman to start the ball rolling?
The Commuter has a number of ticking clocks that amplify the tension, but here is the best part. Neeson’s character was not a great choice for the job. I spotted the right person immediately. To quote The Hunt, “You done fucked up, bitch!” Every passenger is suspicious of him, and he is really bad at his new job. He gets pickpocketed, loses money and is spotted by everyone that he surveils. He is getting too old for this shit! What he lacks in street smarts, he makes up for in earnestness and his ability to eventually win the trust of strangers who think that he is probably having a nervous breakdown. Even the movie teases him for taking out his economic anxiety on an obnoxious broker by briefly humanizing the broker immediately after Neeson’s verbal jab.
I really loved that even though The Commuter only had three fight scenes, the train was actively and mostly convincingly used as a separate character in the action. Of course I know that nothing can happen to Neeson’s character, but when you are a New Yorker, a train is a uniquely terrifying mode of transportation. There are dead spaces where you could be surrounded by people and still face an individual threat from another passenger. The train is inherently deadly by virtue of its size, speed and purpose. Then you have the tracks! Collet-Serra kept toying with those dangers and introducing new nightmare scenarios that I never even considered.
While the actual action fight scenes may not be memorable, The Commuter was thrilling in a moderately brutal fashion though keeping it commercially safe enough to not alienate viewers who will complain about graphic violence. I will always call bullshit on any scene that absurdly requires Neeson to share a confined space with anyone else. Never gonna happen. There is a scene when Neeson demands that a conductor pull the brake then the conductor has to walk past Neeson to do so. Do it your damn self! While people occasionally look at Neeson with suspicion, no one makes a face like he stinks, and he should have if the air conditioning did not work on the train. I hate that moment when any normal person would try to clear their name in a conversation, but the action hero just goes along with the misunderstanding as if it was an afterthought. After the denouement, suddenly the police are hella competent to reassure the protagonist, but mostly the audience, that everything is fine elsewhere even though up to now, it seemed as if they were clueless. How exactly did they intercept the danger before it happened? I did not think that they could do that? What were they doing that criminal before they got to the destination? Whatever. It is fine. Where is the waiver for me to sign?
The Commuter features one blink and miss her star, Black Panther’s Letitia Wright, before she became famous. Florence Pugh of Midsommar and Little Women fame plays a slightly more substantial role, but not by much. Imagine being the protagonist in Lady Macbeth, an intersectional masterpiece then this movie is your big American break. Jonathan Banks, whom I loved in Community, was suitably affable as Neeson’s train buddy. Sam Neill was underutilized. Elizabeth McGovern did a lot with what little time she was given.
The Commuter is not a movie with a loftier goal than entertainment. The good guys are cops. There is a brief Spartacus moment of protection. The bad guys will be stopped. Visually the film is dynamic. It is about to expire in a week on Hulu. If you are looking for mindless action with a heart, definitely check out this film. It is the reason that Neeson exists.