Netflix And Chill: In The Land Of Saints And Sinners (2023)

I'm not one to usually worry about films being offensive. Nothing much bothers me, I'm in the main demographic for characters who aren't used as punchlines, and I've watched far too many Troma movies to be bothered by tastelessness or mishandling of potentially sensitive issues. So I hope you understand how much thought I gave it before I decided that In The Land Of Saints And Sinners feels offensively bad in the way it uses the Troubles in Ireland as a backdrop for what becomes yet another standard Liam Neeson thriller. It didn't personally bother me, but I have a lot of friends over the water I can imagine may be a bit irked by this, to put it mildly.

Neeson plays Finbar Murphy, a man who lives in County Donegal, working as a contract killer for a local crime boss (played by the superb Colm Meaney). Murphy starts off a violent chain of events when he voluntarily helps an abusive prick shuffle off this mortal coil. Unfortunately, that abusive prick was the brother of a strong-willed terrorist (Doireann, played by Kerry Condon), which leads to her, and her accomplices, working to find the killer, no matter who else gets caught up in the crossfire.

While this feels like an accomplished debut from director Robert Lorenz, it isn't. He may not have too many credits to his name, but Lorenz has been around long enough to hone his skills. The same can be said of writer Terry Loane. It's co-writer Mark Michael McNally who is the first-timer, which makes me wonder if he was the person who came up with the sorely-misjudged main premise (although maybe I am just viewing it that way because it feels a bit closer to home than other films that have used similar backgrounds for some kind of redemption story arc).

The cast all do good work, with both Condon and Neeson on top form, and emanating an undeniably powerful energy in the scenes that have them facing one another. Meaney is always a great presence onscreen, Jack Gleeson does a great job in the role of a young man who doesn't consider how he might end up one day regretting his actions, and Ciarán Hinds is a friendly local Garda officer. There are also good performances from Desmond Eastwood, Niamh Cusack, Michelle Gleeson, Sarah Greene, and everyone else filling out the cast of supporting characters.

I'd be very interested to hear from others who watched this, and especially any of my pals over on the Emerald Isle. Am I wrong for wanting this to have been better, for wanting it to justify the use of the events used as the background to the story? It could have been tweaked so easily, and I don't think there would have been anything lost (especially if Neeson had the same background to his character). In fact, it could have possibly even been improved by setting it in the here and now, showing people who refused to let go of some old tactics while the older and wiser heads remembered how many lives were shattered and destroyed by their actions.

Competent, technically-speaking, but fairly incompetent when you consider the decisions made at the writing stage, this is somehow more egregious than the dozen or more Neeson movies that simply try to replicate the success of the Taken series. Or maybe it's just me thinking that way.

4/10

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Shudder Saturday: Mandrake (2022)

It's weird that Mandrake, a blend of folk horror and rumination on rehabilitation, regret, and resentment, feels like the first film for everyone involved, because it isn't. It's the first feature from director Lynne Davison, but writer Matt Harvey has already written a few other movies, and the cast is made up of people with a wealth of experience between them. It's all put together well enough, I guess, but it also feels incomplete. Someone had one or two interesting ideas, but they didn't realise that they didn't have enough to fill out an actual feature-film runtime.

Deirdre Mullins plays Cathy Madden, a woman who works for the parole board in Northern Ireland. She ends up taking on the case of Mary Laidlaw (Derbhle Crotty), a woman with a notorious reputation in her local area, and given the nickname of "Bloody Mary" after the murder of her husband years before. Mary doesn't seem too intent on showing contrition for her past. She may actually believe that her past actions were right, and she can do something to improve Cathy's lot in life.

I could say a lot more about Mandrake without worrying about spoilers, because there's plenty given away by the title, the poster, and any other marketing of the movie, but I'll stop there. And the paragraph above basically summarises the best of the movie, all of which happens in the opening third. What could have been an interesting character piece, full of tension and creepiness, perhaps making use of an air of ambiguity to keep viewers thinking twice about everything they are watching. Sadly, that's all pushed aside, with everything becoming a lot less interesting as soon as it is all overtly shown onscreen.

Mullins and Crotty are both very good in their roles, and their scenes together are easy highlights as they do their best to work with a script that seemingly tries hard to undermine their performances. What the two women can say without speaking is often then also accompanied by dialogue underlining what the movie wants viewers to pay attention to. The rest of the cast also do good work, but there’s a strange lack of naturalism throughout other parts of the film, making every interaction that isn’t between Mullins and Crotty feel forced and slightly irritating.

Davison directs well enough, and there are a couple of nice visuals here and there, but I think she need a much better script. Although Harvey knows where he is going with the main narrative strand, there’s a lack of confidence throughout, either in his own abilities or the intelligence of potential viewers. I am not exaggerating when I say that this started so strong that I thought it was going to be a new firm favourite, a horror gem to recommend to other genre fans. Watching it all start to unravel was quite the depressing experience, especially as tension ebbed away when it should have been building up towards an impactful third act.

This is probably a classic case of “would have worked much better as a short”, and I look forward to whatever the people involved do next, especially if a few lessons have been learned from making this. There’s not enough in Mandrake to make it anything more than a huge missed opportunity, but I am sure that at least one or two other people will enjoy it much more than I did. If you do, feel free to point out anything you think I have not given due credit.

4/10

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