Film: In the Land of Saints and Sinners 
Cast: Liam Neeson, Kerry Condon, Ciarán Hinds, Jack Gleeson, Colm Meaney, Sarah Greene, Desmond Eastwood, Conor MacNeill
Director: Robert Lorenz
Rating: 3/5
Runtime: 106 min.

Set in the ‘70s, in Donegal, a part of troubled Northern Ireland, we see three types of killers here. Doireann (Kerry Condon) and her cadre are fighting for an independent Ireland and have that as a reason to behave as they do. Finbar (Liam Neeson) is apolitical, an assassin for hire willing to kill anyone, as long as he is paid. Once he renounces the profession, he becomes a conscience keeper of sorts. And the third one is Kevin (Jack Gleeson) who has become a hitman because he likes what he is doing and is good at it.

This is one of Liam Neeson’s better movies in the latter half of his career. It’s not as generic and a little more subtle and nuanced than what we’ve seen of late from him. The setting is what gives this film its depth. Set during early days of The Troubles, the darkest period of recent Irish history, Neeson may not be a recognisable hero because he is playing an amoral assassin who eventually seeks absolution by avenging the abuse of a girl child only to find bloodshed forestalling his penance. In the film, Finbar has been supposedly killing people as a career since around the end of World War II, with Robert (Colm Meaney) setting him up with the contracts.