In a remote Irish village, a damaged father is forced to fight for redemption after a lifetime of sins, but what price is he willing to pay? In the land of saints and sinners, some sins can’t be buried.
I have always been a big Liam Neeson fan. Ever since I first saw him in John Boorman’s “Excalibur” and Colin Gregg’s 1985 drama “Lamb,” I knew he was an actor who was going places. After his first Oscar nomination for Spielberg’s seminal masterpiece, “Schindler’s List,” he continued making good dramas until “Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace” and “Batman Begins” catapulted him into a new phase of his career: Action Star. But it was a little-known thriller that was supposed to go straight to DVD, “Taken,” that exploded and launched him into the stratosphere. But for the past ten years, he has been relegated to making low-budget formulaic action films that copy each other and leave nothing to the imagination. All I can say is thank God for director Robert Lorenz and his sensational feature, “In the Land of Saints and Sinners.”
The movie employs a wonderful who’s who of Irish actors, including Neeson, Kerry Condon, Ciarán Hinds, Niamh Cusack, Jack Gleeson, Sarah Greene, and Colm Meaney. The movie was shot entirely on location in County Donegal in northwestern Ireland, which borders the Atlantic Ocean, and cinematographer Tom Stern captures the rugged Irish coastline in all its natural beauty.
The film focuses on the small, windswept, Irish coastal town of Glencolmcille, where Finbar Murphy (Liam Neeson) lives alone. He likes his neighbor, Rita (Niamh Cusack), and is friends with the town’s only police officer, Vinnie O’Shea (Ciarán Hinds). Other than that, as far as anybody else is concerned, he lives a tranquil life, keeping a very low profile since the death of his wife years earlier. But there is another side to Finbar, the side no one sees except those unfortunate enough to be on the receiving end of his shotgun. Finbar is an ex-assassin who has managed to keep his violent past hidden from everyone in town, but much like the lives he has taken, it refuses to stay buried.
When Doireann McCann (Kerry Condon), a violent IRA extremist, her brother Curtis (Desmond Eastwood), and two other associates arrive in town on the run from detonating a bomb in Belfast, resulting in the deaths of three children and their mother, they seek refuge in the house of her sister-in-law, Sinéad (Sarah Greene), and her young daughter Moya (Michelle Gleeson). When Finbar visits Sinéad’s house and notices bruises on Moya, Sinéad introduces him to Curtis, telling him that he is Moya’s uncle and is just passing through. He says nothing about the bruising and leaves, but later, when Curtis is walking back to the house from the beach alone, Finbar kills him, unaware that Doireann and her two colleagues are awaiting his return. Now Finbar must resurrect his past if he is to take on Doireann before she tears the town apart.
When I left Ireland and moved to the States in 1994 as an independent filmmaker, I did so because there was no film industry. While the industry in Ireland today isn’t as prosperous as Hollywood or even the U.K., more movies are being made with a stronger emphasis on Ireland than ever before. “In the Land of Saints and Sinners” was shot entirely in Ireland, Donegal, to be precise, and as a result, the film has a grittier, more realistic feel to it. It is a fierce, taut thriller that never lets up. I wish more movies like this were made in Ireland, capitalizing on its beautiful, uncompromising coastlines and mountainous terrain.
The cast, overall, is firing on all cylinders. Liam Neeson has kept busy over the years but hasn’t given a worthwhile performance in a long time; thankfully, director Robert Lorenz, who previously directed Neeson in the 2021 thriller, “The Marksman,” extracts an exceptional performance from him, revealing a cold-blooded killer who has lost his enthusiasm for the one thing in life that he is good at. When he is introduced to Kevin (Jack Gleeson), a young, up-and-coming hot-headed hitman, he realizes that it is only a matter of time before he takes over and might even be the one to put Finbar in his grave.
Gleeson, who shone as the much-hated Joffrey Baratheon on “Game of Thrones,” was utterly unrecognizable to me when he first appeared. Here, he is an adrenalin junky who gets off on killing others but later on reveals a tender side that totally contradicts his psychotic exterior. Kerry Condon is the film’s central antagonist, a humorless, intimidating IRA dogmatist who will die defending her country and will not hesitate to pull the trigger if you mess with her family. Once Finbar realizes who he is up against, he reluctantly resorts to his old field of expertise, resigned to the fact that this will probably be his last fight.
Colm Meaney, Ciarán Hinds, and Niamh Cusack all turn up in supporting roles and add to the already eclectic Irish cast on display. “In the Land of Saints and Sinners” is the truly first great film of 2024 and deserves to be seen by as many people as possible. Very highly recommended.
In Theaters Friday, March 29th
