Cold Pursuit is an action thriller film starring Liam Neeson. Based on the Norwegian movie "In Order of Disappearance", it is an entertaining vigilante film with most of the usual enjoyment that can be had with Neeson in the lead.
In the snowy Colorado town of Kehoe, Nels Coxman (Liam Neeson) works as a snowplow driver clearing the roads for passing motorists. One day, Nels' son Kyle suddenly dies from an apparent heroin overdose, despite him not having any history with drugs. Suspecting foul play, Nels decides to take matters into his own hands to find out what was really responsible for killing his son, and inadvertently becomes involved in a bloody feud between two violent gangs.
With Liam Neeson as his typical one-man-army self, Cold Pursuit is a fast paced action fare with an interesting enough story to move things along nicely. Although Neeson is the film's lead actor, it is Tom Bateman as the film's main antagonist who steals the show in every scene he is in. His sleazy, unhinged performance was so unpredictable that it was always intriguing to see what he would do next. The one main problem with the film is that it does not balance its comedy and drama that well. Normally with black comedies like Fargo or In Bruges, there would always be solid comic relief to counteract any scenes of brutal violence or emotional severity. Unfortunately, this film is only sporadically funny, and this lack of humour makes the serious moments feel harsh and unpleasant. This may come down to the way the story has been adapted from its Norwegian source material to suit American audiences, as some of the film's Scandinavian quirkiness would have likely been lost in translation. With that said, Cold Pursuit is still worth seeing for fans of Liam Neeson effortlessly plowing through his enemies by himself (pun intended).
I rate it 7/10
