In the Land of Saints and Sinners: It's Sort of Good

In the opening moments of Robert Lorenz's In the Land of Saints and Sinners, three children are accidentally yet tragically killed by the Irish Republican Army when a cafe bombing targeting a few officials goes horribly wrong. The spectacle may have been more subtle if a battle tank had rolled down the street and flattened the kids, and the whole sequence left a bad taste in my mouth that I couldn't shake for the rest of this movie's runtime. It added nothing to the story I didn't already know about the infamous Troubles of the mid to late 1900s, reeking of empty shock factor and acting as something of a mascot for this movie's recurring lack of subtlety. To be fair, The Troubles were a shocking time in history and an equally complicated affair, so I'm not going to chime in with my certainly underdeveloped take on the actions of the very real IRA, though I'm sure they had their reasons for committing what were, in essence, acts of terrorism. But within the historically fictional confines of Saints and Sinners, I wish that the movie had taken more time and devoted more intent to exploring what about it works instead of doubling down on some weird, side-piece fixations, though I would and will argue that the technical prowess and acting skill of In the Land of Saints and Sinners make up for these shortcomings, if not entirely.

Whatever the critical case, Liam Neeson still can't seem to outrun whatever problems he's trying so desperately to escape in this movie, so tell me what else is new. Here, he portrays an ex-hitman named Finbar who risks getting pulled back into a life of murder-for-hire when it becomes apparent that a young girl is being physically abused by her caretaker, a man connected to the bombing. I won't spoil the whole affair outright, but to be fair to your intelligence, if Finbar decided to do nothing about the abuse, there wouldn't be much of a story to tell, would there?

Forgive the possibly morbid pun, but for all of its troubles, this movie's remarkable visual style and the way it uses color are not one of them. Some excellent camerawork by Tom Stern casts 1974 Ireland in the glow of a fairy tale - a really violent fairy tale about men with guns carrying out possibly justifiable domestic terrorism and, depending on who you ask, possibly not. It's evocative of some of the more organic bits of Skyfall, though not as good as the best bits of Deakins's breathtaking work on Bond 23. Likewise, there's an excellent and distinctly Irish-sounding original score in Saints and Sinners to go along with the obvious visual prowess, a score that seamlessly blends the cold, hard steel of a spaghetti western with the wonder of Irish folk. I dare say it's a genius composition, one that occasionally had the power to take me away to another time, another place. 

Additionally, I like that we're shown the contrast between Finbar's life as a tenant and his life as a killer, but with this intentional focus on the small things came a tedium as it became more and more apparent that the movie wasn't doing a whole lot of anything. Watching much of In the Land of Saints and Sinners can feel like listening to an obviously skilled singer perform the same wonderful song over and over again because while the plotting of the movie is very solid, the pacing with which it's realized is wanting. It's an overwritten affair that sometimes risks tedium, injecting itself with far more thought, dialogue, and story than need be. Lastly, this movie is really serious in a way that borders on pithy. Don't get me wrong, I know that a life of murder is serious subject matter, but there's a fine line to be had between showcasing serious subject matter and trying to say hey look at me, my subject matter is serious. This movie sometimes crosses that line.

Despite its flaws, In the Land of Saints and Sinners is, in the end, a good movie that's trying so hard to be a great one, so much so that it's a little hard to watch it try at times. A big part of me wishes it didn't feel the need to try and act so important, that it would realize that it already is. And despite its shortcomings, Saints and Sinners genuinely does some things very well. The acting is quite good on all fronts, and the technical work phenomenal on all levels. And this is why I wish I wasn't constantly subjected to the cinematic equivalent of a Ted Talk about why violence is bad while watching it. The ways this movie mines ideas and statements from the infamous Troubles is far from subtle, and it never quite figures out how to make every bit of screen time between its practical sermons meaningful. And though I'm sure I sound like a seesaw by now, there's nevertheless a good movie to be found here, even if In the Land of Saints and Sinners doesn't think you're smart enough to find it. 

In the Land of Saints and Sinners - 7/10

Isaiah 60:17-18