The Marksman – Dumb But Grounded Action-Neeson

This isn’t the first time this has been said nor will it be the last time but every Liam Neeson action movie is essentially the same, give or take subtle plot variations. While in most cases that formula can become tiresome, the Neeson-action subgenre has produced several duds, these films have more or less still been able to find reasonable success. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. They may not be the best films in the traditional sense though for the most part, they still find a way to be somewhat entertaining be it as a rental or when stumbled upon on streaming services or on regular television. This is most likely the destiny of The Marksman, the latest Neeson-action fare that rises above the majority of the films within that subgenre by overcoming its shortcomings and delivering a somewhat compelling final product. Sure, it may be overly dumb, however, it grounds the stupidity with a realistic story that doesn’t try to be more than what it is and after all those recent duds, that alone is refreshing.

While the film features a lot of window dressing as an attempt to add some depth, the majority of it literally didn’t matter as The Marksman boils down to a story about a rancher on the Arizona border named Jim Hanson (Neeson) who happened to stumble onto a young Mexican boy named Miguel (Perez) who was fleeing the Mexican cartel while fleeing to the United States. Becoming the boy’s guardian, the two formed an unlikely relationship as Jim and Miguel attempted to make a cross-country trek to reunite the boy with his other family while being pursued by the same cartel who were out for revenge. Jim was not a perfect man by any means as he was struggling just like everyone else but what was clear about him was a principled man who always did the right thing. And if it wasn’t obvious from the film’s title, he was also a marksman. Suffice it to say that Jim and Miguel’s trek would not be an easy one though it was partly their fault. Meanwhile, the contrived story couldn’t seem to keep them away from their pursuers for whatever reason. It also added a few unnecessary wrinkles for whatever reason.

While the circumstances may get repetitive and annoying, not to mention hard to care about, the relationship between Jim and Miguel carried the film through and was still somewhat compelling to watch. Despite not being new or original whatsoever, the language barrier and the generational barrier made for some decent moments between the two. Ultimately, those can only last so long but their relationship was much more than that and that evolution was still fun to watch. With a running time of almost 2 hours, The Marksman could have certainly tackled this kind of story a little quicker than it did here. In terms of action, the film was fine and awkward to watch which is understandable since Jim is a normal older man and the film thankfully didn’t try to make him anything more than that.

At the end of the day, the best part of The Marksman was the performance of Neeson and Perez and their great chemistry as Jim and Miguel. With the film resting mostly on their shoulders, they did an admirable job of at least keeping the film watchable. What more can be said about Neeson? He may play more or less the same character in most of his action films but his charisma and screen presence still work here and it could be argued that he actually tries here instead of merely going through the motions like in many of his lesser action films. Though maybe it’s because of his relative newcomer co-star. Perez definitely held his own alongside Neeson with some charisma of his own. Winnick was just there as Jim’s daughter Sarah.

Overall, The Marksman won’t set the world on fire but it will definitely be one that viewers will be proud to decompress to.

still courtesy of Elevation Pictures

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Keith Noakes

The EIC of the coincidentally-named keithlovesmovies.com. A Canadian who prefers to get out of the cold and into the warmth of a movie theatre.