By now, the idea of Liam Neeson starring in a film featuring vengeance and violence may seem overly pat, even tiresome. But some of these movies, such as 2019’s Cold Pursuit, can be very worthwhile, and the new release In the Land of Saints and Sinners also falls into that category. While there is violence and vengeance, this film is less of an action flick and more of an ironic exploration of Irishness. Set in 1974, in the heart of the Irish Republican Army’s terrorist assaults, Saints and Sinners returns Neeson to his Northern Irish roots. The movie is darkly lyrical and somewhat meditative, and respectable talent is evident everywhere. The film’s director is Robert Lorenz, who produced Clint Eastwood movies — from Mystic River to American Sniper — for over a decade while also directing Eastwood in 2012’s Trouble with the Curve, making Lorenz the only person to direct Eastwood, the actor, since the late Wolfgang Petersen in 1993’s In the Line of Fire. Fittingly, the cinematographer is Tom Stern, the Oscar-nominated director of photography for every Eastwood movie from 2002’s Bloodwork to 2018’s The 15:17 to Paris. Stern’s cinematography in Saints and Sinners is both varied and impressive. He features some vivid contrasts, especially of pale faces draped by the nighttime sky, but his imagery here is not especially stylized or noir-oriented, as it often (not always) was for Eastwood. Sometimes it captures the gray, drizzly somberness of the Irish outdoors, and on other occasions it reveals the dappled quality of golden Irish sunlight mixing with the country’s famous greenery. Composition is also a strength, especially in the climactic scene involving a towering church at nighttime.
In addition to Neeson, the movie features two other Oscar-nominated performers from Northern Ireland or Ireland, Ciarán Hinds and Kerry Condon. The latter — arguably one of today’s best actresses — is especially powerful as a fierce IRA terrorist and Neeson’s ultimate antagonist. And speaking of Neeson, Saints and Sinners grants him the chance to blend his irony and empathy as an actor with his toughness and technique as a gritty “tough guy.”
One could argue that the film’s only flaw is that the editing is sometimes a bit too quick, whereas the movie’s best rhythms and scenes usually come with slower, more relaxed editing that creates a meditative and ironic quality. Quick editing is certainly appropriate for the movie’s climactic gunfight, but in some other, “between scenes” sorts of passages, slower editing and a slightly longer running time would have enabled the movie to sustain its best pitch more consistently. Quick editing tends to work for a tongue-in-cheek quality, but while that tone is evident in Saints and Sinners (a very “Irish” film, after all), it is not the overriding one.
Regardless, the flaw is a modest one in a “good” film. Lorenz also displays his directorial discretion when he briefly features Marlena Shaw’s classic 1969 song “California Soul” to highlight the dreams and desires of a supporting character. Lorenz plays the song (diegetically), but only as a brief snippet, as if to suggest a wistful echo. He does not let it play out as a false substitute for character, theme, or atmosphere.
In short, if one is tempted to dismiss In the Land of Saints and Sinners as just another disposable movie with Liam Neeson playing a hitman, don’t. He indeed plays a hitman yet again this time, but in a bittersweet and fatalistic drama, one that is not earthshattering yet proves enjoyably effective.
