Liam Neeson Plays an Irish Assassin in a Movie You’ll Probably Watch on a Plane
In the Land of Saints and Sinners opens on a busy pub, but its introductory text spells trouble: “Northern Ireland, 1974.” A bombing attempt goes awry, sending its IRA perpetrators—led by the ruthless liberationist Doireann McCann (Kerry Condon)—on the run from Belfast to a coastal town in Donegal, just south of the border. They decide to lay low, but this quaint village in the Republic of Ireland happens to be the home of hitman Finbar Murphy (Liam Neeson), whose path they eventually cross, resulting in a consistently watchable (if politically disengaged) drama about regret.
The film is an Irish production, but American filmmaker Robert Lorenz imbues it with a distinctly Western vibe. The opening notes of its score by GREAT GARBO—the Swiss-Austrian trio made up of siblings Diego, Nora, and Lionel Baldenweg—sound distinctly inspired by Ennio Morricone, albeit with the occasional use of Irish folk instruments. These settings may not mix on the surface, but Lorenz’s Wild West approach to Troubles Ireland is less about flash and more about introspective mood.
It also feels inspired by Lorenz’s longtime collaborator, Clint Eastwood. Despite its use of echoing, Morricone-esque flutes and harmonicas in its score—reminiscent of Sergio Leone’s The Good, the Bad, and The Ugly, which starred Eastwood—the movie takes more after Unforgiven, a deconstructive neo-Western. Like Paul Munny, Eastwood’s character in that movie, Neeson’s Finbar is a widowered former assassin. Unlike Munny, his bounty-hunting days aren’t quite so far in his rearview.