REVIEW
Cold Pursuit
Stars: 4.0
Starring Liam Neeson, Laura Dern, Tom Bateman, Emmy Rossum, Domenick Lombardozzi, Julia Jones, John Doman, David O’Hara, Ben Cotton, Chris Cook, Nathaniel Arcand, Mitchell Saddleback and Tom Jackson
Directed by Hans Petter Moland
Written by Frank Baldwin
Rated: 14A for violence, coarse language and drug use
Runtime: 119 minutes
Now playing at Landmark Cinemas – St. Albert and Cineplex Odeon – North Edmonton
Whatever you do, don’t get yourself in trouble with whichever character Liam Neeson is playing at the moment. Be assured that it won't end well for you.
Neeson has played the ultra-capable everyman better and for more movies than Daniel Craig has worn the Bond suit, and with an infinitely more charismatic personality to boot. Cold Pursuit might not win title of the year, nor poster of the year, but it works hard to win over the audience’s heart with its winning characterizations and morbidly playful sense of humour. It was originally called Hard Powder, which made it sound like one of those GoPro-styled ski documentaries. Good choice on the change there, methinks.
Now that I think about it, Cold Pursuit sounds like a ski bum flick, too. Oh well.
Be that as it may, we enter the world of Nelson (Nels) Coxman, a snowplow driver who recently wins the citizen of the year award for Kehoe, Colo. He’s a humble family guy so his speech is all ‘gee-shucks thanks’ with such affable stumbling in his gruff, stubbly stutter that you can’t help but fall in love with him immediately. He’s not high and mighty about the praise. He’s just a good ol’ down-to-earth kind of fella. “I’m just a guy who keeps a strip of civilization open through the wilderness for people,” he says, likely not realizing at the time that he’s not just being literal here.
Who wouldn’t want him behind the wheel of a plow, keeping the streets open and safe?
So when his son gets killed after a mix-up with a drug dealer, Nels doesn’t leave justice to the lazy cops of his ski resort town; he picks up the gauntlet himself and wastes no time laying waste to the string of bad guys, one by one, leading him straight up the ladder to the head baddie named Viking (exquisitely portrayed by Tom Bateman).
For all the blood that gets shed – and splattered in this darkly comic revenge film – there is a kind of running tally that signifies the chapter of the plot ending with each henchman’s demise. Even the font announcing each now-dead character’s name has a vaguely comedic Old West look to it, like Tarantino trying to push a Bugs Bunny agenda. It shows its roots here as the film is a remake of the 2014 Norwegian vigilante film Kraftidioten (In Order of Disappearance), also directed by Hans Petter Moland though with less aplomb and more “sang fraud” shall we say?
For all his guff and gumption, Nels is not the most enjoyable character on screen: that belongs to Viking. Viking is a New Age psychopath, one who cares as much about co-parenting his young son to the utmost of his potential as he does for abiding his murderous code of ethics. We only get a glimpse into his world once for every two or three scenes involving Nels, but I sure wish it was the other way around. He’s simply delightful and full of fun surprises. The exposition, I found, seemed to lack the full development of Nels’ motivation. One minute, he’s man of the year. The next, he’s got a sawed-off shotgun in his coat. What? Was he hiding out in the town like Viggo Mortensen in A History of Violence?
Cold Pursuit is a decidedly North American attempt at the Nordic noir genre mixed with more than a healthy dose of Coen Brothers. No Fargo for Old Men, perhaps?
People will certainly remember the stink this production caused when Parks Canada forbade filming inside national park boundaries because of the presence of an Indigenous drug dealer, played here by Tom Jackson. It might have been the socially conscious decision, but I enjoyed and appreciated Jackson’s depiction as White Bull, whose rival gang sticks close to its spirituality. They smudge and use gifts of bear claws to mark agreements, for example. Who am I to argue with Tom Jackson? I chalk this up to an honest and positive view of First Nations peoples, though I do see Parks Canada’s point. Much of the filming ended up in Fernie, B.C., never a better ski town was there.
Sadly, the film might be besmirched by some recent and racially insensitive comments the 66-year-old Neeson recently made to Rolling Stone. Too bad, though he also stated this would be his last action film, after what feels like a very long series of him saving his family and the world from terrorists of all ilks. Next up for the Irishman then is his co-starring role in Men In Black: International, which I believe is billed as a “comedy” flick, not an actioner. Take that with a grain of salt when it lands at cinemas later this year.
