Starring: Liam Neeson, Tom Bateman, Tom Jackson, Emmy Rossum & Laura Dern
Directed by: Hans Petter Moland

Distributed by: StudioCanal
Release Date: February 2019
Running Time: 118 mins

Synopsis: Welcome to Kehoe, it’s -10 degrees and counting at this glitzy ski resort in the Rocky Mountains. The local police aren’t used to much action until the son of unassuming town snowplough driver, Nels Coxman, is murdered at the order of Viking, a flamboyant drug lord. Fuelled by rage and armed with heavy machinery, Nels sets out to dismantle the cartel one man at a time, but his understanding of murder comes mainly from what he read in a crime novel. As the bodies pile up, his actions ignite a turf war between Viking and his long-standing rival White Bull, a soulful Native-American mafia boss, that will quickly escalate and turn the small town’s bright white slopes blood-red.

It is impossible to overstate how much of an impact the film Taken has had on Liam Neeson’s career. He was an accomplished actor beforehand, of course, known predominately from his role as Oskar Schindler in Schindler’s List, or as Qui Gon-Jinn in Star Wars: The Phantom Menace, but it wasn’t until Taken came out in 2008 that he cemented himself as an action star. Over the following decade (2008-2018) Neeson would not only appear in two Taken sequels, but also a number of similarly themed thrillers such as; Unknown, Non-Stop, A Walk Among the Tombstones, Run All Night and The Commuter. While it might appear to be just another in this long line of action thrillers, Cold Pursuit is actually the antithesis to the ruthless and unstoppable action hero role that populated Neeson’s career renaissance during the 2010s and actively pokes fun at the whole concept of a desperate father taking on entire drug empires as a one-man army.

Cold Pursuit is a remake of the 2014 Norwegian film, In Order of Disappearance, and actually shares the same director – Hans Petter Moland – who returned to direct the English-language version of his original film. Transferring the action from Norway to Colorado and replacing Stellan Skarsgård with Neeson, the film feels extremely reminiscent of the 1996 cult classic, Fargo – not only because of its isolated, snowy setting and its matter-of-fact approach to brutal crime, but also because of the ‘comedy-of-errors’ way that circumstances conspire to bring about the most violent possible ending. At times the film actually feels like Taken, but as told by The Coen Brothers, thanks to the similarities in plot structure and the extreme dark humour inherent in the script. For example, whenever a character is killed in the film – a black title card appears on-screen with their full name and a visual representation of their gravestone. It is a nice postmodern, tongue-in-cheek reference to the body counts in these types of movies, but also is used as a punchline at times to hint towards an off-screen death.

Neeson plays against type as Nils Coxman – showcasing the character’s vulnerability and at times, ineptitude – as he embarks on a misguided crusade against the drug cartel responsible for his son’s death. This is a far cry from the bold, determined expertise of Bryan Mills and Neeson handles the shift in character type extremely well. There are some moments of deadpan seriousness against comedy that feels like foreshadowing for his eventual role as Frank Drebin Jr in 2025’s The Naked Gun reboot – this same juxtaposition of serious and silly is something that he has achieved in films such as A Million Ways to Die in the West and Ted 2. At the opposite end of the vendetta lies Tom Bateman’s crime boss “Viking”, who again plays against the genre by being more concerned about his son’s dietary habits than the disappearing low-level drug pushers. Bateman does a great job as the nepo-baby drug lord, balancing a role as an overprotective father with his psychotic business antics. He is very fun to watch, giving Neeson a worthy and memorable opponent as opposed to the forgettable antagonists of the Taken trilogy.

Cold Pursuit appears to nod towards its parallels with Fargo through its character of Kim Dash (Emmy Rossum), who seems very reminiscent of Frances McDormand’s Marge Gunderson as a police officer accustomed to mundane crime of her remote snow-baked town, suddenly thrust into the machinations of a much more sinister plot. Rossum isn’t really given too much to do, aside represent the law in Kehoe and how underprepared it is for the chaos and carnage that the cartel brings to the town.

The film is something of a slow-burner, establishing the mundane existence of Coxman family before they are swept up in the slipstream of organised crime. Much like a snowball, seemingly minor events begin to spiral and the ramifications become larger and larger before culminating in a bloody showdown between crime gangs. The script is very clever, bringing together all of these misunderstandings and assumptions towards their inevitable conclusion of violence. It feels Shakespearian at times, maximising the use of dramatic irony to show the audience how simple misunderstandings keep leading towards bigger miscommunications. There is a post-modern vibe to the script and Moland’s directorial style that owes a great deal to Quentin Tarantino’s early work, particularly Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction.

Whether it is the squeaking of the mortuary table when identifying the lead character’s murdered son, or the amusing full-screen epitaphs provided for each time one of the henchmen die – Cold Pursuit has a darkly comedic tone that contrasts against its subject matter. It plays against the expectations of Liam Neeson’s casting to deliver a more grounded take on revenge compared to the typical unlimited bullets kill-fests that he usually appears in. The tension builds up over time as Neeson works his way through the hierarchy of the criminal organisation, inadvertently causing a gang war between two formerly peaceful rivals. The whole film itself ends on a punchline when one of the few survivors of the final bloodbath ends up accidentally paragliding into a snowplough and is minced to death. It is this flippant approach to death that gives the film its gallows humour and distinguishing it from other films in its genre.

Cold Pursuit takes all of the ingredients of a Liam Neeson film, including Neeson himself, and throws them into the blender with Fargo and the best of Nordic noir to produce a curious black comedy set in the snowy mountains of Colorado. Neeson effortlessly deconstructs his recent “action hero” persona in a subtle way, maintaining a straight face as the world around him spirals into Coen‑esque chaos. Director Hans Petter Moland makes use of the frozen Rocky Mountain landscape to its fullest, capturing the sense of isolation and toughness that comes from the environment – whilst again dismantling the tropes typical to his Nordic noir background. The result is a film that is very different to Neeson’s recent output – a tonal shift that may prove difficult for some fans to overcome. Tom Bateman’s yuppified mob boss and his legions of codenamed goons make for interesting adversaries for Neeson, establishing an engaging game of “cat and mouse” that ends up causing devastating collateral damage for all sides. Well-scripted and well-structured, Cold Pursuit offers a completely different take on the “Liam Neeson action hero” sub-genre that is extremely refreshing considering how formulaic his films can be – however, as much as I enjoyed this icy deconstruction of the genre, a part of me still craves the clean, cathartic simplicity of a straight‑up revenge rampage.

Cold Pursuit is available on DVD & Blu-Ray from Amazon UK and can also be streamed on Amazon Prime Video.