Lionsgate(NEW YORK) — Liam Neeson re-teams with his A-Team co-star Patrick Wilson in The Commuter, which hits theaters today.
The film centers on Neeson’s character, an ex-cop-turned-recently-fired insurance adjuster who’s given a life-changing proposition by a mysterious woman on his train.
While it starts off as a mystery, it transforms into a full-on action movie. “It’s an Alfred Hitchcock drama shoved through an action movie meat grinder,” Wilson laughs.
“I think audiences like that,” Neeson tells us. “I think, you know, with the success of all these TV shows, these Agatha Christie murder thrillers and stuff, I think audiences really like to know: ‘Is it him? Is it her?! No, no, no, wait: maybe it’s him again!’ I think they really like a guessing game as to who the bad guy is or who the bad girl is.”
Wilson worked with Neeson on The A-Team, but also worked with the mystery woman, played by Vera Farmiga, in the Conjuring films. “[A]ny time you get a call that says, ‘Do a movie with them,’ you say yes.” “..And you just hope the part’s good,” he laughs.
As for the action element of this whodunnit, fans of Neeson’s Taken films won’t be disappointed, even if the movie mostly takes place on the rails.
There are a couple of physical altercations,” Neeson says coyly, adding the movie’s setting presented its challenges. “Because it was a very, very strict, confined environment, it was pretty tough. So we wanted the physical altercations to be based on a reality. You know, it’s not superhero stuff, to have a fight on a train.”
Incidentally, Neeson literally fought a superhero on a train — well, a monorail — as the baddie in Batman Begins, opposite Christian Bale’s Dark Knight.
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