When 19-year-old Adam agrees to do a day's driving for his mum's gangster boyfriend Peter, it takes him on a 24-hour journey into a nightmarish world of murder, sex trafficking and revenge, in the company of aging hit man Roy.
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Reviews
I love this movie so much
Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!
Excellent but underrated film
Don't Believe the Hype
There's way too much love for this movie on IMDb though I can't help noticing that most major reviewers haven't bothered writing about it. And they're right not to. This is derivative rubbish with underwritten characters, and plotting that doesn't pass muster even if it tries to get by as a black comedy. Tim Roth's character has to be the least interesting assassin on celluloid (or whatever they're using these days): "I haven't killed a woman since 1983." How endearing. Jack O'Connell's character is a moron with sadistic impulses: "Was 'cos I fancied her, that's why I couldn't do it." Presumably, he can only kill women he doesn't fancy. Another charmer. Peter Mullen gets to act nasty with a Scottish accent and use the c-word a lot. Stephanie Beacham lookalike Kierston Wareing is wasted as Mullen's wife. There are no interesting villains, and the only person to root for is on screen for the least amount of time. Each scene is at least twice as long as it needs to be, and the visuals don't make up for the lack of dialogue. I'd rather be eighty-sixed than sit through these 86 minutes again.
This movie is a good break from usual Hollywood ones, in that it doesn't try to artificially fuel suspense (so the pace is not rushed, but at the same time you never get bored - you keep wondering what's next).The story may not be very original (it's above average TV movies though and it's told in an original style, letting the viewer understand the situation one step at a time), but it's surprising at every step, like good entertaining (especially a thriller movie) should be.The actors' play is much better than TV-class movies' as well. Although this movie is not meant to be deep (it's not very philosophical, and that's the only flaw I see in it), it does develop the characters (lets the viewer discover them by means of their actions) gradually and you'll be surprised by how much so they evolve from beginning to end.I'm not a film critic, but I watch a lot of movies and as the other reviews don't give much justice to this movie, I thought I should step in. So this is just me voicing my opinion. I'm also not a native English speaker.
The Liability is rather atypical British crime film, no Guy Ritchie or Danny Boyle, resembles rather Scandinavian ones - no big criminal groups, focus on landscape, long journeys, no funny lines/dialogs. However, the famous British black humor is present... The plot is versatile, at times even too confusing - for a film less than 1,5 hour - but very good male performers: Tim Roth, Jack O'Connor, Peter Mullen. All proved quality in British movies with twists. Roth is the best, most renowned and he was the reason the film caught my eye. Actresses are not catchy, Talulah Riley is just a beautiful chick, her character is too arid. Thus, I have quite ambivalent feelings about this film which is definitely not to everyone's taste - too dark and gloomy.
Although sometimes aimless, "The Liablity" wonderfully weaves an intelligent story of Adam (Jack O'Connell) by playing to the actor's strengths (slow humor, immaturity, cockiness, and a buckets of empathy). When Adam is asked to become the "driver" for his step-dad's hit-man, we run into Roy (Tim Roth) who also does an excellent job. Tim Roth plays the critical role of reality check for the viewer, questioning Adam at every point, giving the movie a great sense of character depth during the dialogues.In the 'day-and-age' of re-hashed Guy Richie British crime movies, with the same actors, playing the same roles, its really refreshing to see movie that doesn't rely on the same-old intersecting plots, with inconceivable charters. "The Liablity" is also supported by a great soundtrack, some great industrial-cinematography, and solid writing, overall 8/10 and well worth watching.Think of it as catcher-in-the-rye meets > Léon: The Professional > meets > Skins.