Honest Thief Review

Since starring in Taken in 2008, Liam Neeson has mostly focused on action roles. Honest Thief is the latest action-thriller for the Irishman to star in despite saying he was retiring from action roles in 2017.

Tom Carter (Neeson) is the elusive “In-and-Out Bandit,” a bank robber who stolen $9 million over his criminal career. However, when Tom falls in love with Annie (Kate Walsh) he decides he needs to turn himself in to the FBI in exchange for a reduced sentence. The two agents sent to question Tom turn out to be corrupt and plan to kill Tom so they can take the money for themselves.

Many of these Neeson-led thrillers end up blending together. Some might stand out with some visual flair (Run All Night) or dark comedy (Cold Pursuit). Honest Thief was the most cookie-cutter Neeson thriller possible. The only major difference was Neeson’s character in Honest Thief was more well-adjusted than some of his previous characters.

Honest Thief was directed by Mark Williams. This was only his second film as a director which properly contributed to why the film felt generic. He hasn’t got the flair like Joe Carnahan or Jaume Collet-Serra has. Fortunately, Williams did have a good team around him. His cinematographer was Shelly Johnson, Joe Johnston’s regular cinematographer, and Michael P. Shawver has worked with Ryan Coogler. The film did have a decent car chase in the middle. However, a scene where a house blows up was really cheap because of the obvious CGI fire.

Honest Thief leans more towards being a thriller than an action film. There were a few brief action scenes as well as the aforementioned car chase. As a thriller, it had a solid premise. The plot points and some of the dialogue was expository-heavy. There was dialogue that revealed that Tom was an engineer in the Marines to show he had a certain set of skills and a scene when he calls one of the corrupt agents felt like a parody of Taken.

Honest Thief’s greatest feature was the character work. There was a bit more depth to them than in some other modestly budgeted thrillers. Tom and Annie had a fun dynamic together and it was easy to believe in their relationship. It seemed plausible that Tom would give himself up to the FBI so he could live an honest life with Annie. However, the film does try to justify Tom’s criminal career by making him out to be a Robin Hood-like figure who only stole from corrupt executives.

Agent Meyers (Jeffrey Donovan) had a fun subplot because he was divorced from his wife and since she got the house, he got the dog. Meyers took the dog as a way to get revenge on his ex, but he ends up growing attached to the mutt. Tazzy the Shih Tzu was a cute addition to the film.

The most interesting dynamic was between the corrupt agents, Nivens (Jai Courtney) and Hall (Anthony Ramos.) Nivens was the more ruthless member of the pair because he was the one willing to steal the money and use violence as a solution. Hall was the more sympathetic character because he had doubts and ends up being forced into the scheme.

For fans of Liam Neeson’s action-thrillers Honest Thief does the job. It’s a minor entry in his filmography.