Run All Night belongs solidly in the “one last job” genre, only with a twist: Our semi-retired gangster is a sad-eyed drunk.
After a career as the best hitman in New York, Jimmy (Liam Neeson) is filled with guilt and regret. He spends his days pickling himself at the Irish bar run by his boss, Shawn (Ed Harris), who’s still a powerful mob kingpin, albeit a strangely ethical one (he won’t traffic in drugs). Jimmy is too drunk and too depressed to be of much use to anyone, but Shawn keeps him around out of loyalty—the two have been lifelong friends.
Both men have sons: Jimmy is estranged from his decent, family-oriented son Michael (Joel Kinnaman), who teaches boxing during the day and rides a limo at night; Shawn is constantly cleaning up messes made by his spoiled, reckless son, Danny (Boyd Holbrook). One night, a deal goes bad, the bad guys (coincidentally) take Michael’s limo on their way kill Danny, who kills them instead. Since Michael’s a witness, Danny wants to whack him, too, but Jimmy arrives just in time to kill Shawn’s son and save his own.
“I killed your boy,” Jimmy says sadly to Shawn over the phone. “I had to.” In turn, he knows that Shawn is going to do what he has to do: Hunt down Michael and Jimmy and exact his revenge.
I liked the fact that Shawn and Jimmy remained respectful adversaries—if not quite friends anymore—throughout. It’s Jimmy’s job to try to convince Shawn to kill him, not his son. There’s a mournfulness there—a sense of grim inevitability.
Because Jimmy hates himself so much, his biggest fear is that his son will repeat his mistakes, so it’s very important to him that—even as they dodge bullets on the run throughout the city—Michael never takes a shot. This is the rare gangster flick that actually seems aware of the consequences of violence.
Vincent D’Onofrio is on hand as Detective Harding, the last decent cop in New York, quite possibly the only person Jimmy can actually trust—ironic since Harding wants nothing more than to send Jimmy to jail and throw away the key. The actor/rapper Common is almost unrecognizable as Andrew Price, the super-scary hitman sent to take down Michael and his family.
Run All Night, which is directed by Jaume Collet-Serra (Non-Stop) and written by Brad Ingelsby, is a solid, B-thriller, elevated by good performances. We already knew that Neeson could do this “elite killer” stuff in his sleep, but Jimmy’s sadsack, world-weary ways makes this a slight variation on his Taken persona. As for Ed Harris, he seems to be saying, “Don’t forget me! I can be a geriatric badass too!” Color me convinced.
There’s a lot of silliness—why for example does Andrew Price never turn off his gun’s infrared light, making him that much easier to spot in the dark? Since no one knows they’re being followed by Price, how on earth do Michael and Jimmy explain all the dead bodies (including several corrupt cops) in their wake? Also, I’ve never seen a film use more faded photos to convey the passage of time and lost innocence: The film has more old photos than the wall at Sardi’s. (I know…1969 called; it wants its joke back.)
Run All Night is extremely moist-eyed about Irish gangsters and fathers and sons and men who adhere to a code. Considering how sneakily sentimental it is, it’s a near miracle that “Danny Boy” doesn’t play over the credits. Then again, they couldn’t totally resist—the song is featured in the commercials.