The Commuter

Retired cop and recently let-go insurance agent Liam Neeson faces a race against time to locate a fellow train passenger of interest to a shady criminal (Vera Farmiga) in this workmanlike thriller. A big pay-off is promised upon completion of the task, but an uncertain fate awaits his wife and son if he fails to identify the targeted commuter. What follows is a typical white-knuckle yarn, but not nearly as tense as previous entries of a similar ilk in Neeson's recent CV (the Taken movies, Non-Stop), the narrative frequently hamstrung by convoluted plot twists. Neeson doesn't have much to do except frown and shout frantically as he interacts with each faintly drawn character among the ticket-holding suspects. Farmiga makes a fine cold-blooded femme fatale but has comparatively little screen time to make a mark as a genuinely fearsome villain, with director Jaume Collet-Serra's action-focus treating the rattling, runaway train as the true star of the piece.