THE COMMUTER

THE COMMUTER is a thriller about a seemingly mild-mannered insurance salesman whose boring daily commute home is disrupted by a mysterious woman who offers him $100,000 if he’ll find another passenger and place a GPS tracker on their bag. THE COMMUTER has a strong moral worldview, but there is some foul language and intense violence, so caution is advised for older children.

The movie stars Liam Neeson as a seeming Everyman life insurance salesman named Michael who loses his job abruptly just five years before retirement and while suffering under a crushing pile of debts. A former policeman, he meets his old police partner for drinks after getting fired. He then heads home on the train to what is normally a boringly routine commute to the suburbs.

However, this day is different. A train buddy points out that a mysterious woman named Joanna is staring at Michael, and soon she sits down with him and makes a strange but compelling offer. She claims her job specialty is psychologically profiling people, and she seems to ask Michael a hypothetical question. Would he track down a strange passenger named Prin and place a GPS monitor on their bag if he was given $100,000?

Joanna then disappears off the train, but when Michael finds the first $25,000 where she told him to find it, the race begins. Wary that he might be caught in a dangerous situation, Michael tries to leave the train with the first batch of money, only to be stopped by another stranger, who gives Michael his wife’s wedding ring. This sends the strong message that mysterious forces have tracked down Michael’s family and they are in danger if he doesn’t comply.

Michael weeds through hundreds of people and tries to solve the mystery of who Prin is and why the mystery woman wants her followed. THE COMMUTER builds an impressively smart and atmospheric thriller that recalls the best of Alfred Hitchcock. No matter what he tries to do to get out from under Joanna’s control, he gets foiled, and he also keeps guessing the wrong people with increasingly dire consequences.

THE COMMUTER is made with class and taste while maintaining a constant suspense. As usual, Neeson is in his element as yet another upstanding family man with a special set of action skills. During the movie, he becomes the center of an ever-changing cast of strangers who flit in and out of his sight and consciousness as he’s forced to constantly evaluate those around him for signs of being his mysterious quarry.

The action is pitched at a standard action-movie level, crisply executed when the hand to hand combat occurs and with some surprising stunts along the way, but never bloody or graphic. Happily, the foul language is relatively sporadic, with one “f” word used in the context of a rabble-rousing line to a stockbroker about the allegedly corrupt investment firm Goldman Sachs.

One impressively moral touch is its extremely positive portrayal of marriage. Michael and his longtime wife are shown as loving and happy and as good parents to their two teenage sons. In fact, they make a point of flashing their wedding rings at each other every morning. Also, Michael immediately shoots down Joanna’s seeming flirtation by saying he’s married. Finally, while a police corruption scandal turns out to be behind all the suspense, the movie makes it clear that there are plenty of good cops too.

Overall, THE COMMUTER is a surprisingly rousing way to start the new year and expertly crafted entertainment. Caution for older children is advised because of some foul language and intense but not graphic action violence.