Retribution movie review: Liam Neeson’s lazily written thriller lives up to the blandness of its title

The opening act of the movie is filled with so many leaps of faith that director Nimród Antal, who has made good films in the past, make no mistake, might as well be doing cardio to distract you from asking too many questions. Neeson plays a shady man named Matt Turner, who lives extravagantly along with his wife and two children in Berlin. What he does for a living remains unclear, but is explained in bits and pieces through the course of the film.

On a particularly tense morning — Matt has argued with each member of his family individually, all before breakfast — he hops into his expensive Mercedes SUV along with his kids, and drives them to school. A few minutes later, however, an anonymous caller with a distorted voice tells him that there is a bomb under his seat. If he tries to get out of the car, it’ll detonate; if his children try to escape, it’ll detonate; if Matt tries to alert the cops, it’ll detonate.

You can almost picture somebody cornering a studio exec in an elevator, and pitching this idea as Speed meets Locke meets Phone Booth meets that bonkers B-movie in Elijah Wood is strapped to a bomb during a classical music concert. But in executing it, they’ve made a crucial error. Retribution would’ve immediately been at least 70% better if they’d given it a different title, and then if they’d just found ways to restrict Matt from stopping his car every five minutes. These brief pit stop completely rob the movie of all tension, as do the frequent in-person meetings that the screenplay somehow contrives between Matt and his work colleagues, all of whom are revealed to be a part of some financial fraud.

Never before has the ‘this could’ve been an email’ meme been more appropriate. The movie really wants us to believe that Matt can’t get out of his car, but he can evade the cops, avoid starting a major manhunt, and still find time to have conversations with three other acquaintances from across the street. Of course, had Retribution been even marginally better, none of this would’ve been an issue. In fact, Antal would’ve done well to lean into the ridiculousness of it all.

Instead, Retribution unfolds with the gravity of an epic Western, which, once again, you could easily be led to believe if you have no idea what it’s about. They really needed a different title. Ultimately, the movie serves as a fitting metaphor for the bed that Neeson has made for himself. Cursed to continue making only action movies, the striking star has no choice but to keep forging ahead, on a path decided by others, surviving by the skin of his teeth every time, only to be told to do it all over again.