Cold Pursuit film review: Liam Neeson’s junket admission eclipses an otherwise serviceable revenge drama

In an alternate timeline, Cold Pursuit would have been a low-key cinematic release, more of the same from an actor we’ve come to know as the go-to guy for revenge dramas. But Liam Neeson had other ideas. In a run-of-the-mill press junket, Neeson, apropos of nothing, told a story about stalking the streets of Belfast armed with a cosh looking for a black man – any black man – to beat to death following the rape of a friend.

It was excruciating, morbidly fascinating, a monumental admission so starkly out of step with the flaccid junket circuit that the entire world stopped what it was doing to rubberneck at this baffling car crash Liam Neeson had somehow created on an empty stretch of road.

The world did not, however, turn up to watch the film he was attempting to promote, which has been the lowest grossing action film of the actor’s career. The role he was supposed to promote was that of Nelson, a humble snow plow driver whose son is killed by a drug lord, sending him on an ultra-violent path of revenge.

Another film, another quest for vengeance, except this time it’s delivered in an unusual package. Hans Petter Moland, remaking his 2014 Norwegian film In Order Of Disappearance, takes inspiration from the mid-90s work of The Coen Brothers and Quentin Tarantino. It’s saturated with dark humour, with an off-kilter soundtrack and odd little touches such as title cards memorialising each death. The characters have comically mundane conversations about fantasy football, diets, and the importance of nicknames.

Neeson, for his part, is more or less the same as always. True, he’s a snow plow driver and not a former CIA agent, but he can still dispatch hardened criminals half his age with minimal fuss (he learns a method of disposing of bodies from a crime novel). His co-stars are an eclectic bunch, from over-the-top villain Tom Bateman to odd couple Colorado cops Emmy Rossum and John Doman. The biggest mystery, however, is why the excellent Laura Dern is so underused as Nelson’s wife, appearing in only a handful of scenes with little to do.

The question of whether Liam Neeson has been entirely cancelled or merely forever branded by his dark confession remains to be seen. Viewed apart to the headlines, Cold Pursuit is an entertaining Neeson thriller that sticks to the formula that made him a star while throwing in a handful of impressive flourishes. If this is the last Taken-esque thriller we see from the actor for a while, at least it wasn’t a carbon copy of what came before.