In the Land of Saints and Sinners (2023)
One of the pleasures of being a movie
critic is telling people about a good movie they might have otherwise not heard
about. Director Robert Lorenz's new drama/thriller In the Land of Saints and
Sinners is such a film. However, my eagerness to tell readers about it is
offset slightly by annoyance that the studio has done little-to-no marketing of
it in the United States. I'm usually pretty on top of what movies are being
released and when, but I only found out about this when I went to the Elmwood
Palace's website to see if there was a new movie I could see that wasn't Godzilla
x Kong.
The lack of marketing push is
frustrating because In the Land of Saints and Sinners features a
well-known star (Liam Neeson) in the lead, a recently Oscar-nominated actress
(the excellent Kerry Condon, who was nominated for The Banshees of Inisherin
in 2022), and an actor who played one of the most memorable villains on one
of the most popular TV shows of the 21st century (Game of Thrones' Jack
Gleeson). And the story isn't some snail-paced, esoteric arthouse fare. It's
essentially an Irish Western and has mainstream appeal if only audiences knew
to look for it.
Neeson plays Finbar, a retired contract
killer living in a small Irish village in 1974. He is trying to do something
more meaningful with his life in his retirement, but his old habits come back
when an IRA cell (led by Condon) hides out in the town after one of their bombs
kills even more people than intended.
As mentioned above, the vibe here
recalls classic Westerns, albeit in an Irish setting. A hard man returns to
violence when a small community is threatened. Neeson brings his usual gravitas
to the role of Finbar, and Condon makes for a formidable antagonist. The movie
never soft-pedals its characters' actions but they always seem recognizably
human. In an era categorized by bloated running times, In the Land of Saints
and Sinners runs an economical 106 minutes.
In the Land of Saints and Sinners is
a movie that deserves to find an audience and hopefully it does one day.
