Cold Pursuit review: Liam Neeson movie not at all what you’d expect - NEWS.com.au

It’s starting to feel like Liam Neeson can’t hold on to his kids.

When you hear that in Neeson’s new movie he plays a snowplougher out for revenge when his son is killed by a drug cartel, you probably think you’re going to get something like Taken 4, except in a minus-23 degrees climate.

How wrong you would be.

Rather than a high-octane action thriller with rooftop chases and dramatic fight scenes on a boat, Cold Pursuit is surprisingly low-key, and strangely funny.

Sure, there’s blood and teeth flying through the air but the beating heart of Cold Pursuit comes not from the gunfights or mighty right hooks, it’s from its pitch-black sense of humour.

It’s not overtly funny, it never goes for the broad choice but it makes the awkward silences work so well. It may be conscious of its own hilarity but it’s also subtle in its execution, expertly building it up over its two hours run time.

It’s a rewarding experience for the audience. Think of it as Coen-light.

Directed by Norwegian Hans Petter Moland, Cold Pursuit is a remake of his own film In Order of Disappearance from 2014.

Neeson’s Nels Coxman is a devoted snowplougher, keeping the roads in and around the small ski town of Kehoe clear from nature’s ferocity. He, his wife Grace (Laura Dern) and son live in a secluded lodge, nestled between the mountains.

When his son Kyle (Micheal Richardson) is found dead, supposedly from a heroin overdose, Nels knows his boy wasn’t a junkie. From there, he sets out to avenge Kyle’s murder, killed by a vicious drug cartel operating out of Denver, about three-hours’ drive away.

Nels isn’t a killing machine, even though his monster of a plough, barrelling through the snow with its fearsome blades, very much is. He is a middle-aged dad, exactly the kind of earnest, unassuming man who is named Kehoe’s “Citizen of the Year”.

He’s not a Terminator — when he punches out a drug dealer, he gets tired and winded.

The head honcho of the cartel is Viking (Tom Bateman), a particularly vicious and petulant sociopath, dictating his single-digits son can eat only grass-fed beef and asparagus for all three meals on Mondays.

Viking is surrounded by a raft of henchman, some more memorable than others while a rival drug gang comes into play later in the series.

Emmy Rossum and John Doman play two Kehoe cops — she more industrious, and he much less so. There’s unmined potential here, the two are seemingly only there to be exposition machines with little effect on the actual story.

There are many story and character strands that don’t quite cohere and Neeson’s accent is definitely questionable, but they’re largely forgivable because Cold Pursuit is just that little bit mad.

It nails its tone as an offbeat black comedy, sometimes veering into farce, but managing to balance the macabre and the silly — like when Nels is dumping a body into the gorge while The Pretenders’ Christmas song 2000 Miles rings in the background.

If you can get past a decapitated head and some very crude language, Cold Pursuit will surprise you with an oddly fun time.

Rating: ★★★½

Cold Pursuit is in cinemas from Thursday, February 7.

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