Honest Thief, review: Liam Neeson as a redeemed thief in an improbable action-thriller

Tom Dolan is a professional bank robber who has always managed to get away with it; what's more, the authorities have no idea who he might be. One day he meets Anna, an honest woman who manages a storage facility, and falls madly in love with her. His feelings for her are so strong that he decides to change his life and get back on the straight and narrow, even wanting to return the loot from all his past heists, which amounts to a monstrous 9 million dollars, and confess his crimes so he can live peacefully and without inconvenient secrets by her side.

In Honest Thief, the protagonist chooses to contact the FBI by phone and introduces himself as "the In-and-Out Bandit," the criminal who brought Boston's banks to their knees. But the two FBI agents called to verify the truthfulness of his confession decide to pocket that dirty money, lying to their superiors, ultimately dragging Tom into a situation with no apparent way out.

Honest Thief: when the plot matters

Yes, the synopsis you just read is not the product of some joker's mind, but the premise of the screenplay for Honest Thief, a film you have to see to believe. It's very difficult to judge a production based on such an absurd story, with love and guilt suddenly redeeming this expert thief who until then had no qualms about robbing bank after bank, because crime "made him feel alive."

But even if one were to accept our protagonist's sudden conversion, it is still difficult to understand the means by which he contacts the authorities and the scant consideration given to him by the FBI officer played by Robert Patrick, who appears as an unfortunate guest-star, one of many background figures victimized by increasingly chaotic and improbable events.

Unflinching gaze and routine action in Honest Thief

Honest Thief, an oxymoronic title that is a program in itself, aims to play its cards on the charisma of Liam Neeson in the midst of his post-Taken (2008) action-movie phase, and despite his undeniable charisma, even the popular Northern Irish actor shows a bit of weariness here, almost as if he had little faith in the project he had so unwisely chosen to participate in. The motivations of the villains, prone to sudden reversals and arguments that further undermine the credibility of the premise, and the inadequacy of an FBI that is outsmarted on multiple occasions, only confirm the limitations of a script that demands an excessive suspension of disbelief from the viewer, who is increasingly tossed about in narrative chaos.

Is it enjoyable on a purely genre entertainment level? Mark Williams's direction is relatively solid, albeit following a standardized style, and the action and suspense offer a handful of decently executed sequences, right up to that final showdown that ironically seems to anticipate a future film starring Neeson, the mediocre remake Retribution (2023). But to fully enjoy the playful heart of the operation, one must make a huge effort to overlook the illogical plot.