Review: 'The Marksman' is a straight-forward thriller, with Liam Neeson getting progressively craggier
Despite its head-fake toward current-events relevance, “The Marksman” is a serviceable road thriller that demonstrates that Liam Neeson is slowly, inexorably, morphing into Clint Eastwood.
Neeson plays Jim Hansen, an Arizona rancher whose property abuts the U.S./Mexican border fence. In quick strokes, we learn that Jim is: a) in arrears on his ranch, due to the medical bills of his late wife; b) a retired Marine who’s quite handy with his sharpshooter’s rifle; c) equipped with a walkie-talkie with a direct signal to the U.S. Border Patrol; d) an alcoholic; and e) the stepfather of a Border Patrol detective, Sarah (Katheryn Winnick).
One day, a Mexican woman, Rosa (Teresa Ruiz), and her 11-year-old son, Miguel (Jacob Perez), come through the border fence, right in front of Jim’s pick-up truck. Jim gets on his walkie and calls the Border Patrol. Before they arrive, a Mexican drug cartel boss, Mauricio (Juan Pablo Raba), drives up to the fence, ordering Jim to give Rosa and Miguel back across. Jim refuses, and guns start going off — and soon Rosa is dead, and Jim is tasked with getting a reluctant Miguel to family in Chicago.
Of course, Mauricio and his goons aren’t going to make Jim and Miguel’s drive up Route 66 an easy one. The reason may have to do with the big bag of money Rosa was carrying before she died. With high-tech tools and an army of thugs, Mauricio traces Jim’s path through his credit card — and leaves a bloody trail as he pursues Jim and Miguel.
Director Robert Lorenz (who directed Eastwood in the baseball drama “Trouble With the Curve”), who co-wrote the script with Chris Charles and Danny Kravitz, creates scenes that are functional without being flashy. They’re not great cinema, but they move the story along to its expected destination.
There are attempts to make Miguel a stand-in for several hot-button issues — namely, the Mexicans who seek asylum to escape the violence of the drug cartels — but never with enough conviction to be anything more than an interesting plot point.
Neeson carries the bulk of “The Marksman” with gravel-voiced sincerity and an Old West “a man’s gotta do what a man’s gotta do” demeanor. It’s the sort of role Clint Eastwood used to do in his sleep, and Neeson is quickly proving to be Eastwood’s heir apparent for gruff, aging tough guys.
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‘The Marksman’
★★1/2
Opens Friday, January 15, in theaters where open. Rated PG-13 for violence, some bloody images and brief strong language. Running time: 104 minutes.