Pros: Liam Neeson; more or less down-to-earth characters; high-quality filming and good editing Cons: formulaic plot without original twists “Honest Thief” / Honest Thief
Genre Action, Thriller
Director Mark Williams
Starring Liam Neeson (Tom), Kate Walsh (Annie), Jai Courtney (Agent Nivens), Jeffrey Donovan (Agent Meyers), Anthony Ramos (Agent Hall), Robert Patrick (Agent Sam Baker), Birol Yildiz (Mike), etc. .
Студии Argonaut Entertainment Partners; Briarcliff Entertainment; Cutting Edge Group
Year of release 2020
IMDb website
The film’s central character is a safecracker named Tom, who has been robbing banks for several years, pocketing millions of dollars. When a woman appears in Tom’s life with whom he sincerely falls in love, the robber decides to surrender to the police. Considering plans for a happy romantic future, the main character wants to make a deal and return everything that does not belong to him. However, Tom gets in the way of unscrupulous FBI agents who want to turn the situation in their favor.
The film “Honest Thief” turns out to be exactly what you expect from it after watching the trailer. This is far from the most confusing and eventful story with an unexpected ending. Everything here is quite formulaic and simple, and the most important detail of the film is the presence in it of Liam Neeson, who continues to live up to his established image of a character who is ready to overcome any difficulties and, if the situation demands it, to fight back the bad guys.
The sincere desire of the protagonist to surrender to the authorities amuses not only the audience, but also the employees of the Bureau of Investigation. These are secondary characters who perform their work duties, and gradually delve into the essence of the matter. So that the events are not completely faceless, the scriptwriters attach a funny dog to one of the agents, who is forced to sit with the owner both in the office and in the car. There will be no other elements to dilute the atmosphere in the film; the events of the film take place in a rather serious setting.
Fortunately, the script takes the time to reveal the reasons, as well as the pattern of criminal thieving activities of the central character. This is essential so that the hero can clarify the situation for his beloved woman, played by Kate Walsh (known from the series Grey’s Anatomy and 13 Reasons Why). Over time, she also connects to what is happening, and the film takes on the shape of an action game in which there is room for moderate chases.
The film was directed by Mark Williams, who previously directed only one feature film, A Family Man, starring Gerard Butler, and produced the Ozark series. In the case of the story of an honest thief, Williams has nothing much to offer the viewer, except for high-quality shooting, good editing and obviously understandable history. The director shot an action movie on the principle of most of the same type of American films that do not have the goal of collecting a large box office.
On the other hand, The Honest Thief is a film with down-to-earth characters (if you close your eyes to a number of successful robberies of the protagonist), who have fairly simple life goals and understandable relationships. This is a movie for those who are tired of all-powerful heroes who easily dodge bullets, or antagonists suffering from existential crises.
As for Liam Neeson, he can still pull out an action movie, albeit not the most original one. In the film “Honest Thief”, the actor does not take on major tasks and does not destroy half of the city (he does not even exterminate inveterate scoundrels, as in the previous film Cold Pursuit with his participation). The artist manages to make the action movie watchable, but it seems that he should stop and stop agreeing to the same type of roles. It would be great to see him make a dramatic performance again with Neeson doing it without a gun.
Conclusion:
the film turns out to be exactly what you expect from it after watching the trailer.
