Every Passenger is a Piece of the Puzzle. 

This review contains mild spoilers. 

"The Commuter" is directed by Jaume Collet-Serra (Non-Stop) and stars Liam Neeson (Taken), Vera Farmiga (The Conjuring) and Patrick Wilson (Insidious). "A businessman is caught up in a criminal conspiracy during his daily commute home". Liam Neeson makes films like this all of the time; is "The Commuter" another solid B-action-movie? Or is it derivative of Neeson's past work?

The title of this film does not do it any favours; throughout its marketing campaign, I completely dismissed "The Commuter" purely because of its dull name. The trailer advertised a film with an intriguing concept, dodgy special effects and Liam Neeson in the starring role, and that is exactly what the film delivered. With that said, I actually did enjoy watching "The Commuter"- I was constantly engaged and interested in how the plot was going to unravel. The film may not reach the clearest of destinations but the journey getting there is exciting and thrilling to watch. "The Commuter" should satisfy fans of Neeson as well as cinema-goers who feel deprived of action amidst the current flurry of awards season releases. 

Liam Neeson must be tired of starring in films like this and essentially playing the same character over and over again; in most of his movies, Neeson has to do deal with the threat of losing family members and is usually tasked with hunting a perpetrator or another mystery figure. In "The Commuter", Neeson plays Michael and throughout the film, Michael's friends are killed, and his family are put in danger; Michael must find a passenger on the train to ensure their safety. Neeson delivers an almost identical performance to those he has previously given in films such as "Non-Stop" and "Taken". Everybody knows that Liam Neeson does not have a diverse set of skills when it comes to acting but he excels in roles like this. After learning that Neeson lost his wife in 2009, it must be difficult for him to keep playing characters who are threatened with the loss of family. Neeson is good at what he does though, and I expect him to continue starring in films like this for the rest of his career. "The Commuter" requires Neeson to hold the film together; few scenes do not feature him, and every other character has minimal lines compared to Michael. Anybody who enjoys "The Commuter" will agree that Liam Neeson is a crucial contributing factor to all of the good things that this film has to offer. 

Vera Farmiga stars as Joanna, the film's mysterious antagonist. Farmiga only has two on-screen scenes as most of her dialogue is spoken on the phone. However, she certainly does not phone her performance in as she impresses with the little screen time she has. I am only familiar with Farmiga because of "The Conjuring" films, and her performance here shows she has a good range and plays a crafty villain well. Patrick Wilson is also someone I know from the horror genre, and while his performance is solid, it is also entirely forgettable; his character should be more interesting than Wilson plays him.

SPOILERS

The concept of "The Commuter" is intriguing and compelling; the film utilises the train setting well. Although the film begins and ends weakly, the actual train journey, the middle section of the film, is very entertaining. The problem I had with "Murder on the Orient Express' was that it failed to build an atmosphere of mystery and suspense. Although "The Commuter" doesn't require an atmosphere containing the latter, the film sets up the mystery well, and from that point onwards, there is a clear sense of enigma lingering throughout. The way Michael narrows down the passengers was quite clever; the only information he receives is the destination of the person he is looking for and that they go by the pseudonym, Prin. Michael is left with five suspects, all of which are from different social classes and ethnic backgrounds. This diversity was nice to see, although it did also seem like tokenism. The train journey is full of interesting twists and turns as Michael finds out exactly who is accompanying him on-board. Unfortunately, the film loses momentum in the final act as the mystery is announced; not only did I guess the identity of Prin from their first scene (call me Sherlock) but the reasoning behind them being targeted is confusing and badly explained. This was when the film started to lose me. It is revealed that Prin was a witness to a tragic event and holds evidence that will confirm a conspiracy theory about the US police force. I do not think the audience is ever told what this conspiracy theory is and if they are, it was poorly communicated. I can only assume that "The Commuter" was attempting to comment on police corruption, but the writers needed to do more than just force it into the finale for that to be effective - possibly a coherent explanation of the conspiracy theory would have been a good place to start? Other than a rocky start and a muddled ending, "The Commuter" does execute its promising concept relatively well. 

The action sequences are not that inventive or memorable. However, this is to be expected from a B movie such as "The Commuter". The visual effects do not look as bad as they do in the trailer but I have seen better. This film was made for $30 million and after seeing "Maze Runner: The Death Cure" use $60 million so well (that film looked like it was made for so much more), I feel more critical towards where "The Commuter"'s budget has been spent. The film takes place in one location and only stars one big name; there must have been money left on the table to put towards better visual effects. Especially as the film only requires stellar visuals for the 'train derail' sequence. There were some exciting action scenes including when Neeson climbs out of the train and has to get back on it as it is moving and a few fist fights (which were so obviously sped up for effect). "The Commuter" did not have to rely too heavily on action-packed moments though as this is a very story-based film.

Director Jaume Collet-Serra once again demonstrates that he is the master of telling thrilling stories in confined locations: "Non-Stop" takes place solely on an aeroplane and "The Shallows" sees Blake Lively stuck on a rock in shark-infested waters. Collet-Serra does need to diversify his style as "The Commuter" is essentially "Non-Stop" but on a train; if he continues to make films like this, I would suggest he plays around with his casting choices (and that doesn't mean Blake Lively stuck on an ice floe in the Arctic). 

"The Commuter" is a solid watch, as long as it is not taken too seriously. There is not anything that sets it apart from other Liam Neeson films, but fans of the actor will likely be satisfied. Narratively, "The Commuter" executes an interesting concept at a steady pace and is always engaging. However, the film does run out of steam in the final act with one predictable reveal and another ludicrously, unpredictable reveal; the latter leaves the audience confused as the film makes little effort to explain it. The action scenes are fine, but they are nothing to rave about; they will be just as enjoyable on a smaller screen as they are on a cinema screen. "The Commuter" is an enjoyable journey until it arrives at its destination. 

58

/100

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