Absolution: Old Boxer Out but Not Down in Absolution

By Liz Braun

Rating: C+

Liam Neeson drives an ancient muscle car and sports a ‘70s moustache in Absolution, items that telegraph his old-school approach to thuggery and criminal bad behaviour.

Here playing a former boxer turned enforcer, Neeson’s character is a dangerous guy. This is a lean, dark drama about a lost soul’s final attempt at redemption, so forget about the exhilaration of watching him unleash that very particular set of skills — it’s not what’s happening here.

Set in Boston, Absolution finds Neeson’s character — he’s just called Thug — working for local crime boss Charlie Conner (Ron Perlman) and helping that boss’ son (Daniel Diemer) learn the ropes. What’s quickly made evident is that Thug is having memory issues; he carries around a little notebook to write down the names of things and people he can’t recall.

He is eventually diagnosed with chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), not too surprising, given all the years of repeated head trauma as a boxer and a street fighter. HIs case is advanced, so the writing is on the wall.

With whatever time he has left, Thug decides to try and mend some fences with his estranged children.

His daughter Daisy (Frankie Shaw) wants nothing to do with him, but Thug is keen to do something good for her and her adolescent son (Terrence Pulliam). In particular, Thug is determined to protect his grandson from turning out the same way he did.

Then Thug takes a job with the boss’ son, moving contraband. He advises the fledgling gangster not to look in the truck — better not to know what’s in there. Turns out women are in the truck. The discovery that he’s been involved in human trafficking does not sit well with Thug. Spurred by further betrayal, Thug works out a way to do something good for his daughter.

There will be blood, etc.

Absolution is a slow, sad, somewhat suspenseful drama. Memory and identity are inextricably bound, so as Thug forgets he is increasingly a haunted character, slipping into his own world and prone to worrying nightmares. (There are a few dream sequences in Absolution — odd and unexpected, but interesting.) His unravelling is emphasized further by his encounters with a woman he likes (Yolonda Ross); pity we don’t get to know more about her.

The film’s various elements do not quite meld, and despite a few strong performances, none of the characters feel fully three-dimensional. There isn’t enough going on to call this one an action movie, and not enough delving into the human condition to call it a character study, either. Maybe file Absolution under noble failure.

Absolution. Directed by Hans Petter Moland, written by Tony Gayton. Starring Liam Neeson, Ron Perlman, Frankie Shaw, and Yolonda Ross. In theatres November 1.