Review of Non-Stop (2014) by Choc_Raisins — 23 Mar 2014

Okay, so he's at it again. You can almost hear the quotable tweets (if there were any), even as the lines slur from Neeson's mouth. Having become something of a staple, albeit surprising, action-hero in the past few years with the likes of Taken and its risible sequel and others, Liam Neeson returns to play an Air Marshall with problems of his own on a flight that requires nothing if not his full attention.

And the film opens well enough, introducing us briefly but intriguingly to the main protaganists that we will be spending the majority of our time with. Neeson's brooding Air Marshall, Michelle Dockery's approachable stewardess and Julianne Moore's smart but passive/aggressive passenger. All of this is expertly done, like the good old days of 'Airport' movies, that give you just enough of a characters' backstory to keep them interesting, though not enough to be sure whether they will make it to the end of the film with the rest of us. Think of the setup in The Poseidon Adventure for example, in 1972, and you're not going far wrong.

There are more than just these three characters of course, as this flight is almost full and paying attention at the time will do you a service as the clues are there should you choose to look and alot goes unmentioned, though not unnoticed, in the first few minutes. In this regard, the film does well to demand your attention and hold you there. While it tries to be subtle, it is not aiming for a highbrow audience, which is evident early on, as Neeson's Marshall is something of a predictable maverick and if not riddled with the standard imperfections of a Hollywood hero, then he certainly enjoys enough of them (doesn't like to fly, knows how to bend the rules, chequered past etc) for us to realise his character traits before he has the chance to tell us.

All of this before you're even twenty minutes in. So far, you're in danger of becoming a contented dozing passenger in this story, like most of the planes' occupants. But like Neeson here, you are part of a different world, the world that sees what others do not. You are being slowly cosseted by the film, absent-mindedly blindsided by the trickery of the admittedly admirable, if occasionally dawdling, story-telling. You see what he sees, so you must be like him, right? The film engages you early on, as Taken did in the same fashion. The plan of all this, of course, is to have you quite blatantly siding with the hero and if possible, cheering and clapping for him by the end.

But this ride, for that is ultimately what it is, is not quick in the delivery or as obvious as it may first appear. There are obvious nods to conventional thinking and then again, unspoken polarising opinion delivered in the form of a glance here or there or maybe where the script delivers something other than would normally be expected of a thriller that does not class the intelligent viewer as its target demographic. In this respect, it is a surprising, not to mention welcome, twist to proceedings which impresses more by what is not written, but implied of the audience by the film.

But before we get ahead of ourselves, this is not a classic. It is, as we have mentioned, an action movie, through and through and would we have it any other way? Probably not. The performance from Neeson is predictably gruff, but maybe lacking the soul of a desperate father. Yes, there is peril here that the man has to cope with, but it not as believable that he would do these things for these people had he not been the parent of all of them. In this respect, Neeson's character, dutiful though he may have been, appears not quite believable enough. In the face of all the odds stacked against you, would you go to the same lengths? If not, does that make you less human, or the character in focus less believable? You decide.

In all though, Non-Stop is good value for its running time, if a little slow to begin with, albeit purposely. The story is never too complicated to befuddle the less observant, yet clever enough to impress those looking for something more than just another Snakes On A Plane. Enjoyable, often actually thrilling, with a passable script and decent, if not outstanding support from Dockery, Moore and the underused and recently award-winning Lupita Nyong'o. Good throwaway fun.