It’s amazing that Liam Neeson makes so many action movies, since he always looks so miserable in them.
Such predecessors in the genre as Charles Bronson and Clint Eastwood usually projected an air of quiet self-satisfaction when dispatching bad guys. Neeson, on the other hand, always seems emotionally pained while practicing his characters’ particular set of skills, as if to suggest that someone has to do this sort of thing, even an Oscar-nominated actor versatile enough to have played characters as disparate as Oskar Schindler, Rob Roy MacGregor and Alfred Kinsey.
Blacklight
His work ethic, too, is admirable. He reliably pumps out one or two of these genre films every year, like a man racing to beat the clock. And since he’s now 69 years old (although he certainly doesn’t look it), that may be exactly what he’s doing.
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Blacklight, marking his second collaboration with director Mark Williams (The Honest Thief), unfortunately proves one of Neeson’s more generic efforts. Lacking a high concept or memorable central character, the film is a by-the-numbers actioner that coasts on its star’s soulful gravitas and low-key charisma. It offers nary a memorable set piece or resonant line of dialogue, except for when Neeson’s character admits at one point, “In hindsight, I suspect I made a poor career choice.”
That character’s name is Travis Block, which would have looked great on the covers of a series of 1960s mass-market paperbacks. Block is a covert operative who freelances for the FBI, specializing in extracting undercover agents who have gotten themselves into dangerous situations. His talents are demonstrated in an opening scene in which he rescues an agent who has blown her cover with an angry mob of white supremacists who look like they’re auditioning for January 6.
Block is, also, of course, a devoted father and grandfather, because what would a Neeson action movie be if he didn’t also have a family to protect? His professional tendencies tend to seep into his personal life, as when he rigorously trains his little granddaughter to look out for possible threats and means of escape. He also suffers from obsessive-compulsive disorder, which benefits him in his work but also results in such idiosyncrasies as a refrigerator filled with hyper-neatly arranged rows of fruit and beer bottles. That’s about it in terms of character development.
The plot is set in motion when an FBI agent (Taylor John Smith), suspecting that the agency has murdered a young anti-government activist, attempts to turn whistleblower. He also soon winds up dead, and Block finds himself collaborating with an ambitious investigative journalist (Emmy Raver-Lampan, The Umbrella Academy) to get to the bottom of the mystery.
It turns out to be a secret and deadly government program dubbed “Operation Unity,” the brainchild of Block’s good friend and boss, FBI director Gabriel Robinson (Aidan Quinn). The two men have a decades-long bond, having shared a fateful experience during their time serving together in the Vietnam War.
Cue the inevitable car chases, shootouts and hand-to-hand fights as Block finds himself increasingly at odds with Robinson, especially when his daughter and granddaughter suddenly disappear. As anyone who’s seen a Taken movie knows, it’s not a good idea to mess with Neeson’s progeny.
The film doesn’t provide much in the way of surprises, and anyone who doesn’t immediately suspect that Quinn’s character is up to no good has probably never heard of J. Edgar Hoover. Strangely, Robinson seems to be the least protected FBI director in history, since Block is able to continually show up unannounced, at one point even knocking on his front door. Robinson does, however, at least prove to be media-savvy, loudly complaining, “Nowadays, this country is ruled by ‘gotcha’ moments on Twitter.”
Although Blacklight harkens back to the conspiracy thrillers of the 1970s — think The Parallax View or Three Days of the Condor — it never achieves their level of narrative momentum or suspense. It mainly serves as a time-filler until the next, better Liam Neeson action movie comes along.
