Director
Mark Williams
(A Family Man)

Stars
Liam Neeson, Kate Walsh, Jai Courtney, Anthony Ramos, Jeffrey Donovan and Robert Patrick

Go ahead, roll your eyes or voice a genuinely enthusiastic ‘yes’ all you wish for the release of yet another Liam Neeson action-thriller, in classic Liam Neeson style. In all honesty, Honest Thief is the exact type of mindless and entertaining escapism many people around the world need right now.

A bank robber who has successfully stolen and hidden many millions from 12 banks across 7 states, Tom (Liam Neeson) is ready to turn himself in and start a new life. The catalyst for such a drastic turnaround is the charming female he meets who manages the storage facility he keeps his fortunes, Annie (Kate Walsh from TV series The Umbrella Academy and 13 Reasons Why). They’re one year into a relationship and looking at buying a home together. Wanting to spend as much time with Annie as he can, Tom decides it’s time to confess his crimes and aims to negotiate a deal with the FBI. To his misfortune though, the two FBI agents assigned to his case (played by Jai Courtney and Anthony Ramos), aren’t exactly honest themselves and are seeking personal gain from Tom’s confession.

If the aforementioned isn’t enough on its own to keep Tom on his toes, then the fact he hasn’t got around to telling Annie about his past transgressions certainly puts him on the back foot! As such, sitting back and watching Tom as he desperately tries to keep Annie out of harm’s way while both on the run from and in pursuit of various FBI agents for a number of reasons delivers just the right doses of action and distraction it ought to. The script does deal with some things that eventuate a little loosely and the film refrains from ever becoming brutal or bloody (as per its M classification), so those who may fall just outside of Honest Thief’s target audience might not be quite as fulfilled. For instance, the bank robberies, which we seldom see, are conducted in a non-violent manner.

Honest Thief is ‘softer’ by Liam Neeson standards, yet is equally effortless to be entertained by as any of his more high-octane works.

3 stars

Viewer Discretion
M (Violence and coarse language)

Trailer
Honest Thief

Moviedoc thanks Rialto Distribution, Ned & Co Marketing and Publicity and Annette Smith for providing the screener link to watch and review this film.

Honest Thief is in cinemas nationally (excluding Victoria) from October 22.

Review by Leigh for Moviedoc
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