Cinemazlowski 'Run All Night' proves to be a tale of regret and redemption

Mar 13, 2015

In a strange way, Liam Neeson might just be the most Catholic action hero we’ve ever seen in movies. He’s actually Catholic (despite bizarre rumors after “Taken 2” that he was going to embrace Islam, he never has) and spoken highly about it plenty of times including in a hilarious appearance on Jimmy Fallon’s talk show.

But what I’m referring to is the moral gravitas he brings to his action films. In the “Taken” trilogy,  he was a secret agent who would stop at literally nothing to save his family when they were endangered. In the underrated classic “The Grey,” he has an amazing transformation from atheist to believer as he faces death in the Alaskan wilderness against nature and voracious wolves.

But in the past six months, he has really dived into issues of forgiveness, redemption and whether revenge can ever be righteous, first with last fall’s “A Walk Among the Tombstones,” and this weekend with the absolutely brilliant “Run All Night.”

Liam plays Jimmy Conlon, whose best friend since childhood is Sean Maguire (Ed Harris, in his best role in a decade), who grew up to be a crime kingpin in New York City. Jimmy was Sean’s best assassin, who would kill anyone Sean asked and do so with inventive brutality or ace shooting skills.

The problem is, Jimmy’s guilty conscience caught up with him eventually. He left his family to protect them from ever being harmed in a revenge move by criminals, but his son Michael never understood and grew up to utterly disown him and ban Jimmy from meeting his own children. Jimmy is barely surviving now, having quit his violent ways but frequently drinking and admitting to Sean that he can’t sleep at night due to seeing the faces of all he killed.

One other thorn in Jimmy’s side is a police detective named John Harding (Vincent D’Onofrio), who confronts Jimmy in a diner and taunts his guilt in the hopes of finally knowing all the names of Jimmy’s victims and being able to bring closure to their families. Jimmy drives him away, but soon comes to realize how badly he need this cop, whom he respects for being an honest one.

What really brings Jimmy problems is that a high-rolling Albanian drug dealer has arrived in New York, hoping to convince Sean to help him flood New York with high-grade heroin. Sean refuses, having gone relatively legit 20 years before when he saw that the cocaine he helped distribute in the ‘70s and ‘80s had destroyed countless lives. The Albanian is not happy, especially with Sean’s sleazy son Danny, who he had paid to guarantee Sean’s interest. With Sean refusing to play ball, the Albanian wants his fat payoff back – but he doesn’t know the kid has blown it all, and Sean refuses to bail his son out of trouble on this one.

The Albanian coincidentally hires Jimmy’s now-grown son Michael (Joel Kinnaman) through a limo service to go to his money meeting with Danny. But when Danny tricks the Albanian and his men, and instead ruthlessly shoots them, Michael races away from the scene. Danny goes to Michael’s house to kill Michael off to prevent him being a witness, but at the same time Jimmy has been made aware of what’s going down and has shown up at Michael’s house too – just in time to kill Danny as he’s about to shoot Michael.

Jimmy calls Sean and admits he killed his son Danny, and tries to explain it was a matter of saving his own son.  But there are rules in mob life, and the prime one in place now is that Sean’s thugs get to kill Michael and even the playing the field, no matter what. Jimmy refuses to follow that code and warns Sean that if he tries to kill them, he’ll rat out everybody they’ve ever killed to police detective Harding.

And so the game is on, intricate pieces set into place exquisitely. A father and son on the run to clear their names, a dad determined to atone for his past and reconcile with his son, a son who slowly learns to trust, then love his dad after a lifetime of resenting him, plus corrupt cops, countless mob thugs and an ace hired killer (played by rapper/actor Common) out to stop them, and one honest cop as their only way out.

Yes, that is a long setup to explain, but that’s just the first half hour of the movie. How many action movies put even a sliver of such thought into their plotting? Thriller fans should be elated that here is a rarity: a modern action movie that makes you think and respects your intelligence as well as your spirit.

Now, I need to make it clear that this movie is packed with foul language and violence. The fistfights and a couple of stabbings are intense but not gory, and there’s a lot of shooting and car chases, not to mention a brilliant string of showdowns in a public housing complex that I wouldn’t dream of giving away. There is also a lot of foul language, including unfortunate uses of Jesus’ and God’s names in vain on many occasions and the usual array of R-rated bad words.

But anyone who has seen R-level action movies won’t be shocked. This is the gritty world of low-level mob men, who are clearly not paragons of decency. Yet “Run All Night” is a much deeper exploration of right and wrong, of the desire to change and whether it can actually occur, of guilty consciences haunting men for decades after their worst behavior, and of families torn apart by evil actions and whether they can piece themselves back together.

Those moments in “Run All Night “ – and they’re plentiful – are moments of thought and beauty, giving us Catholics much to chew on and contemplate amid this Lenten season. Writer Brad Ingelsby did a similarly smart thriller called “Out of the Furnace” that went too far to recommend morally, but he nails it here, along with director Jaume Collet-Serra as they bring us a New York filled with regret and redemption.