Unforgiven in Eire

"In the Land of Saints and Sinners" takes the Western east

Crossed the river into Nyack for In the Land of Saints and Sinners, and it’s the most satisfying movie I’ve seen in months (since American Fiction, actually).  I’ve been a sucker for recent Liam Neeson movies, in which he’s fallen into a kind of Clint Eastwood-esque pattern of formula pictures, most of them focusing on avenging wrongs, most recently in The Marksman (2021). But like Eastwood, Neeson has also been in some very good movies. This one is patterned on Unforgiven (1992)—like that classic Western, Saints and Sinners features a reluctant hitman wishing to finally hang up his rifle but drawn back into violence for personal instead of professional reasons. The twist is that the story is set in Ireland during the time of the Troubles (initially in Belfast, most of it in County Donegal). Kerry Condon—who I’ve loved in Rome (2005-07), and Breaking Bad (2008-13), and The Banshees in Inisherin (2023)—plays a vicious terrorist with a sympathetic streak. (There’s also the great Ciarán Hinds, who was also in Rome with Condon, to lend a Dostoyevskan overlay.) In the Land of Saints and Sinners was directed by Robert Lorenz, who produced a bunch of Eastwood films. What makes this more than a mere knockoff is the political overlay and some truly wonderful visual compositions along the way. Worth seeking out.