The Commuter

Frank MacCaulay (Liam Neeson) is a daily commuter. From his bed to his breakfast, from his wake-up routine to his wife’s concerns about their finances on the way to station, his life is routine. Until today. Until he is fired with only five years to go on his pension and his entire life collapses inward. However catching the commuter train home, an attractive woman seeks him out with a beguiling offer: find the passenger who doesn’t normally take this train and all his money troubles will be gone…

’The Commuter’ is as routine as the rails it runs on…

Since the surprise hit of ‘Taken’, Irish actor Liam Neeson has made the action thriller his habitual home. Taking the roles that you would have normally associated with Bruce Willis, his gruff, slightly dour demeanour has lent an earnest credibility to the everyman-in-exceptional-circumstances he’s taken. Unfortunately what has changed is the blandness of the scripts that he’s now being presented and ‘The Commuter’ is as routine as the rails it runs on.

Framing a whodunnit inside the claustrophobia of a speeding train has been done many times before and truthfully ‘The Commuter’ could have just as easily been set inside a boat, a plane or a speeding downtown bus for that matter. For the definitive manipulation train-bound thriller I’d suggest you check out Duncan Jones’s excellent ‘Source Code’ with Jake Gyllenhaal. Sadly this commuter train is one you can comfortably miss on your way to the cinema.