The first film directed by veteran stunt coordinator Mark Vanselow works too hard to generate sympathy for Neeson's fugitive war hero. Since the days of “Vanishing Point” and Steven Spielberg’s “The Sugarland Express,” Hollywood has been making films about fugitives in fast cars who become media-sensation folk heroes. Companies like American International Pictures and Roger Corman’s New World Pictures would deliver movies like this a few times a year back in the 1970s, while simultaneously introducing a separate strain of exploitation stories about American veterans who return from Vietnam out of step from, or in conflict with, their civilian counterparts.
Several decades and countless copycats of “Rolling Thunder” and “First Blood” later, there’s “The Mongoose,” a film conceived in the spirit of those twin subgenres, but without a single deeper thought in its script than “honoring the troops” and showcasing the capabilities of a Shelby Super Snake. Starring Liam Neeson as a war hero on the run from the cops, the directorial debut of stunt coordinator Mark Vanselow delivers lots of vehicular action, some of it quite fun. But despite a stacked supporting cast (including Marisa Tomei, Ving Rhames and Michael Chiklis), the script by Thompson Evans is so committed to ensuring that the audience stays on the right side of the developing conflict that there’s never a moment to question the outcome of the story that the filmmakers are telling.
Neeson plays Ryan “Fang” Flanagan, a Special Forces commander who was captured in Afghanistan back in 2005. Although he and his soldiers Tanker (Rhames) and Munch (Marcus Thomas) outsmarted their captors, their escape came at the cost of their comrade Wiz’s (Ryan Morgan) life. Still suffering from PTSD two decades later, Fang’s marriage to Tara (Tomei) has ended in divorce, although they remain friendly.
But when she calls him to the hospital after being abused by her current boyfriend, high-powered lawyer Todd (Brett Tucker), Fang offers to go to his Arkansas mansion to retrieve her belongings. Tara makes him promise not to exact retribution on Todd, whom she insists won’t be home at the time. When he shows up anyway, waving a gun and suggesting he has the right to shoot Fang on the spot, the ensuing scuffle results in Todd’s death.
With his tires slashed by Todd and cops en route, Fang selects a glossy red muscle car for his getaway. But even though he’s initially cautioned with sensitivity to surrender to the authorities by James Tilton (Maurice Marvel Meredith), a former Marine leading his pursuit, Fang learns he’ll face a less sympathetic adversary once the chase takes him into Texas: Major Walter Pope (Chiklis) waits to apprehend him at any cost. Carrying only a firearm that Todd left in the car’s glove compartment, Fang enlists the help of Tanker and Munch, as well as the Shelby’s AI assistant Helene (Stella Stocker), in order to locate fuel and supplies and evade the police.
But after CNN anchor Laura Coates (playing herself) begins round-the-clock reporting of Fang’s flight from justice, adding context to the circumstances of the crime and the backgrounds of the other individuals involved, the public develops a passionate interest in his plight, offering support and assistance as the cops close in. The flashback structure doesn’t serve much of a purpose except to delay the audience’s complete endorsement of a character who, though appropriately cantankerous, is unambiguously a hero and nice guy. (When Tilton asks early on in the chase if he has a list of demands, “racial harmony” is among them.) The irony of embarking on his flight from justice is that in the world that Evans creates, virtually everyone this decorated veteran encounters gives him his flowers, and believes in his innocence, really without knowing anything about what happened. Despite the lingering emotional reverberations of his service (all shot using desaturated filters and cut together in semi-comprehensible montages), Neeson plays Fang as a mostly even-tempered, almost cheerful fellow, which makes it easy to like and root for his character. (One wouldn’t necessarily expect a scene of the actor gently trying to coax a stubborn tabby out from under a bed, but Neeson contains multitudes.) But aside from a declaration that “I will never be captured again,” that complicated past just doesn’t jibe well enough with the character’s disposition to justify this cross-country pursuit.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
