THE COMMUTER Rides on Rails!

Jeri Jacquin

Get your tickets ready to board the train as director Jaume Collet-Serra and Lionsgate take us all on a thrill ride following THE COMMUTER.

Michael MacCauley (Liam Neeson) is a man that has fallen into a routine of life. Getting up, spending morning moments with wife Karen (Elizabeth McGovern) and family and jumping on the train to get to work is how he sees his life. Having spent the last ten years working for an insurance company, his life is about to change in ways he never saw coming.

Meeting up with friend Alex Murphy (Patrick Wilson), he has a chance to vent about things. Running into former colleague Hawthorne (Sam Neill), Michael and Alex have nothing nice to say about their working relationship or the good ole days.

After having a few beers, Michael boards the train going home feeling a little defeated. Trying to forget life for a moment in a book, he is interrupted by Joanna (Vera Farmiga) who sits and starts a hypothetical conversation that intrigues Michael. The problem is - it is turning out not to be so hypothetical.

Joanna wants Michael to find someone who is on the train and obtain a little something they are carrying. The problem is - even Joanna doesn't know who it is. He is shocked to
learn that Joanna knows about his problems, wife and son and is stunned when he is offered a large sum of money for his services.

When he discovers that murder is happening on the train, Joanna makes it clear learns his family could be next. Now he must walk back and forth on the moving commuter train to find out who doesn't belong and figure out who Joanna really is and what it is she desperately wants.

Time is clicking away faster than the wheels spinning on the train!

Neeson as Michael is once again proving that not only does he still got it but more over we all want to see it. Before going into the theatre, I heard so many conversations of the audience members (of all ages by the way) that they couldn't wait to see the film because it was Liam Neeson. That is one heck of a following to have and I absolutely count myself as one of them. Neeson has the voice, swag and willingness to take hits as this character comes to terms with where he is in his life. That being said, when enough is enough Neeson does what he does best - flip the tables and the audience lost its mind cheering. Neeson has become an absolute treasure and I love it.

Farmiga as Joanna is a woman who got Michael's attention and kept it all through the film. This character basically has me totally rethinking anytime anyone says "let's just say hypothetically speaking" and Farmiga delivers that line so well. Wilson as Alex is a friend Michael turns to when everything begins to go crazy. It's hard to know who to trust when the wheels are turning and time isn't on your side. It's interesting to see Farmiga and Wilson in the same film together without there being a creepy doll or possessed house in the mix.

The cast of commuters is so well done and I'm not going to give a breakdown because this is a train ride I want everyone to be part of for themselves. It is an intense who-done-it or in this case who-is-it and watching Neeson's character try to remain calm and work it out kept my brain busy. Good luck figuring it out!

Other cast includes Jonathan Bans as Walt, Killian Scott as Dylan, Shazad Latif as Vince, Andy Nyman as Tony, Clara Lago as Eva, Roland Moller as Jackson, Florence Pugh as Gwen, Ella-Rae Smith as Sofia and Jonathan Banks as Walt.

THE COMMUTER is a fun thrill ride for the beginning of the new year. This is the type of film, especially for Neeson fans, to gather up a bunch of friends for a night at the movies. I love it when eating popcorn that there is more time with popcorn in your hand up to an open mouth than actually eaten. That's what a fun thriller like THE COMMUTER is.

Of course it is centered on the inside of a train which one might think would confine the story but you would be wrong. There is so much action and different compartments of the train that the action is constant. I'm throwing up tons of props brining intensity and adventure to a moving train and with a storyline of twists.

In the end - lives are on the line!