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Overanalyzing Anime
Blog Owner & Lead Writer
After losing his job as an insurance salesman, retired police officer Michael Woolrich is approached by a strange woman on his commuter train who offers him $100,000 to find a person who, “doesn’t belong.” What was described to him as a “simple task” quickly turns into a deadly game as he scrambles to find the mystery person before anyone gets hurt.. or worse.
The most interesting aspect of this movie is it’s ability to be simultaneously unique & unoriginal. What I mean by this is that we’ve seen Liam Neeson in roles similar to this one - Taken, Non Stop, Unknown - wherein he plays the role of a seemingly normal man who’s surprisingly (though, not really) able to accomplish incredible feats in order to get the job done. However, this movie is unique in the sense that it’s able to blend a whodunnit-style mystery with the action/adventure aspect of the story. The mystery behind who we’re looking for & why they’re important is interesting enough to hold our attention in between Neeson’s bare-knuckled brawls.
My only real issue with this movie is that it leaves the villains very ambiguous. It would make more sense to do this if they were leaving the door open for a possible sequel - which, they very well may be intending to do. However, if that’s not the case, then I wish we could have had a better understanding of who they were & why they were so (ridiculously) well organized.
Spoiler follow.
Another thing I feel compelled to mention is how this movie treats its minorities. It’s such a bummer to see minorities hold subsidiary roles wherein they lack any real agency. Of the three black people in this movie two lacked any sort of substance - one a messenger, & the other a mindless hired gun; and while the third had some semblance of importance, he was still unceremoniously killed, while his white co-star survived the same incident, & all of it just really bothered me. I wish this movie treated its minorities better.
All in all, my personal issues aside, The Commuter was still a lot of fun & I recommend it for fans of Liam Neeson.
My rating: 8/10
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