HONEST THIEF - AMAZON PRIME

HONEST THIEF has a reasonable premise (a successful bank robber decides to turn himself in when he meets a woman he falls in love with), which it then unpacks and explores in all the right ways...but without any subtext or depth, or even feeling for character. What is left is all surface.

Liam Neeson does what is expected: the tension of his predicament delivers a series of now-get-out-of-thats as the complications ramp up. The problem is there’s not much else on display, except some good supporting performances from Jai Courtney (always terrific), Jeffrey Donovan (really strong, evoking Warren Oates modified by Bradford Dillman), and the great Kate Walsh. Their characters deserved a better, richer film.

The writer / director kept trying to sideline Kate’s character to pursue his man-on-a-revenge-mission story (personally, I would have put Kate upfront and centre), but she kept jumping back into the fray. In one instance, where the film tries to get rid of her by packing her onto a bus “for her own safety”, she jumps off (without us seeing) and reappears soon after. Hoorah! I feared we’d lost her. It’s something of a consolation.

There’s a signal moment about 40’ in when Liam tells one of the bad guys he is *coming to get him*... and the film seems to stop for a moment, pleased with itself for finally offering up the line, happy to be delivering on its Taken sub-genre promise.