Totally off the rails: Review of The Commuter by Rashid Irani

The tired, predictable plot barely moves — despite the numerous possibilities afforded by the confined spaces and hurtling speeds of the train.

From the amateurishly edited opening sequence to the predictable climax, Liam Neeson’s fourth collaboration with Spanish director Jaume Collet-Serra (following Unknown, Non-Stop and Run All Night) is a major letdown.

The actor who reinvented himself as a late-career action hero is put through the paces again. This time, he plays a cop-turned-insurance salesman. While on a train home, the cash-strapped family man (Liam Neeson) is made an offer he can’t refuse. A mysterious woman (the estimable Vera Farmiga, underutilised) wants him to identify a commuter whom she claims ‘doesn’t belong on this train’. The reward, a cool $100,000.

Vera Farmiga is wasted in the role of a mystery woman who offers to pay Neeson’s character $100,000 to identify a commuter whom she claims ‘doesn’t belong on this train’.

The Hitchcockian stranger-on-a-train premise is squandered on lapses in logic and generic close-combat skirmishes. Slow-motion shots and endless tracking through the compartments further impede the flow of a deadly-dull narrative.

Worse, the director fails to make effective use of the confined space or hurtling locomotive. Heed the advice of the protagonist and take a bus instead.