Richard Crouse

“In the Land of Saints and Sinners,” a new Irish thriller now playing in theatres, sees Liam Neeson take a welcome step away from the generic action movies that have populated his IMDB page post “Taken.” He’s joined by an all-star cast of Irish actors, including Kerry Condon, Jack Gleeson, Colm Meaney and Ciarán Hinds, in a movie that mixes violence with compassion, revenge with redemption.

In what could be described as an Irish Western, Neeson plays Finbar Murphy, an assassin looking to leave his violent ways in the rearview mirror. His habit of planting a tree atop the remote graves of his victims has left behind a veritable forest, and now Finbar wants to concentrate on penance in the quiet coastal town of Glencolmcille. It’s a relatively peaceful enclave, far away from the political violence of most of 1974 Ireland.

At least it is until IRA team leader Doireann McCann (Condon) and her cohorts arrive, on the run after a car bombing kills several innocent children in Belfast. As Finbar’s life overlap with the newcomers, a deadly war of revenge begins that involves the entire village. “Mr. Murphy has done something,” says Doireann. “Something unforgivable.”

The action at the center of “In the Land of Saints and Sinners” sounds like it could sit nicely on the shelf with any of Neeson’s recent, more generic, actioners, but there’s a different, more nuanced, flavor to this one.

Much of that comes from the performances. The man-with-a-past/protector-of-the-innocent is a role Neeson has played many times before, but the combination of his natural gravitas and, perhaps counter intuitively, his empathy, set Finbar aside from the pack. He’s a stone-cold killer, but understands the toll a life spent holding a gun has extracted from his soul, and that quality adds something new to the Neeson oeuvre. Also, his interactions with up-and-coming-killer Kevin, nicely played by Gleeson, humanizes both characters, and enrich the film with a healthy dose of empathy.

Condon, best known for her Oscar nominated performance in “The Banshees of Inisherin,” plays Doireann as equal parts passion and compassion. She is an extremist, violent and driven by hatred, but Condon allows warmth to peak through the cracks in Doireann’s cold façade.

“In the Land of Saints and Sinners” succeeds because it delivers tension and interesting characters, but, just as importantly, because it drops some of the cliches of Neeson’s recent output in favor of authenticity.