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Liam Neeson plays a top-secret operative in an action movie that teeters between subverting the genre and obeying convention.
Liam Neeson is an action star with a particular set of skills: he can drive fast, punch hard and emote with a depth that makes his shenanigans seem inspired by Ingmar Bergman.
In “Blacklight,” Mark Williams’s quirky yet middling thriller, Neeson plays an off-the-books operative who takes secret orders directly from the director of the F.B.I. (Aidan Quinn), a power-mad, old-guard bureaucrat irritated that he can’t profess his love for J. Edgar Hoover without triggering “politically correct puppets.”
“Blacklight” opens with the assassination of a charismatic, Twitter-hooked politician (Mel Jarnson) seemingly (and uncomfortably) cloned from Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, then trots out familiar action-movie characters. A plucky reporter (Emmy Raver-Lampman) smells conspiracy.
A heroic G-man (Tim Draxl) runs away from cronies who suspect that he’s flipped. The twist in the screenplay (written by Nick May and Williams, the director) is that the story sticks with the point of view of Neeson’s naïve brute, who in an ordinary film would be a no-name heavy offed in the third act.
“Am I the good guy?” he asks. Not really, even to his estranged daughter (Claire van der Boom), who is aghast that her father arrives at his wee granddaughter’s birthday party with a gift-wrapped stun gun — a comic gag that gets tripped up by a treacly piano score and Neeson’s adamant gravitas. After that muddled early scene, the film teeters between subverting the genre and obeying convention.
At least Williams displays a bit of inventive flair with novel booby traps and a chase scene that features a lurching garbage truck.
Blacklight
Director: Mark Williams
Writers: Nick May, Mark Williams
Stars: Liam Neeson, Aidan Quinn, Taylor John Smith, Emmy Raver-Lampman, Claire van der Boom
Running Time: 1h 48m
Genres: Action, Thriller
Rated PG-13 for bland swearing and bland shooting. – nytimes.com
Online Reporter