Hans Petter Moland
Un Uomo Tranquillo

I have a soft spot for Liam Neeson, especially when he plays an ex-something (cop, secret agent, criminal but that's rare) who gets something taken from him, and then he gets really mad and kills them all. Taken? Yes, but taken, well, you know. Which, by the way, all three get me really hyped, but objectively, well, you know.

So with not a little skepticism, and a good dose of well, you know, I approached Cold Pursuit, in Italian Un uomo tranquillo, a 2019 film by Hans Petter Moland, who has also made a few other films (not many) but I haven't seen one, so I wouldn't know. However, dear Hans, I will watch them because I really liked this one! Also, it's a remake of another one of his films, In Order of Disappearance, from 2014, which I will definitely watch and I imagine it's the same thing but with Norwegians, because that's what ours is.

Liam Neeson is an exemplary citizen of a small town lost in the Colorado mountains (not so lost in the end because it's also close to Denver), so exemplary that they award him as Citizen of the Year. What on Earth did he do to deserve such a prestigious acknowledgment? He shoveled snow like a madman. Yes, because good old Liam is a snowplow driver, and damn, he really believes in shoveling snow, he does it like a God, and all his fellow citizens happily drive their SUVs and say thank you, Liam, if it weren't for you, it would be full of snow here, and there would be no way we could drive our SUVs, and Liam shrugs and says, oh, it's just my job, don't worry. His wife is Laura Dern, she smokes joints and is very proud of her husband. Then he also has a twenty-year-old son, who's friendly, and they seem like a nice little family when suddenly:

The son dies, overdose, the cops tell the family, overdose?, says Liam, but my son is not a drug addict, yes, they say, even Laura says, see, we didn't know our son, he was a drug addict, and we didn't even know it, and Liam thinks this seems strange to me. And indeed the fact is strange, and investigating, Liam discovers that, conspiracy!, his son was killed by the Denver mafia because he knew things he shouldn't have known, and holy crap, then he goes mad like a hyena, grabs his hunting rifle and starts taking people out like flies, and not just people, even Native Americans!

‘Wait, it’s incorrect to say Native Americans, it's native people, right: even the natives! (On this topic, there's a joke that broke me with laughter, look, I'm telling you).

Yes, because the drugs in Colorado are handled by two families: one of very evil and also slightly crazy whites, the other of very evil but super stylish natives.

Tremble, oh criminals: Liam's revenge will come down furious upon you! Then Laura leaves him, she says, you're out of your mind, darling, accept the fact that your son was a drug addict, and he goes no, Laura, you don't understand, there's a conspiracy!, but she doesn’t budge, she leaves him. He goes alone and shoots, beats, stabs, etc. etc., all those things that Liam usually does, until his thirst for revenge is satisfied.

Now, by itself you might say well, a famous scientist was needed to conceive such a plot, but we know that the best movies often have the simplest plots. What makes this film a little gem are three things: the irony, well placed and really funny, as well as often surprising (with some glimpses of the surreal entirely unexpected, like the aforementioned joke), the character development that has an old-fashioned flavor, of well-done movies, not with the usual four stereotypical types, but rather with several in-depth digressions on the lives of the antagonists, the direction, punctual, stylish without overdoing it, functional. In addition, everything comes together, even the fact that a snowplow driver from Colorado turns out to be a ruthless and highly skilled killer finds a credible motivation during the film.

Therefore, recommended, also because it seems to me that no one noticed it, but I hope I'm wrong.