How Not To Craft A World
Now I know this isn't exactly a traditional Christmas film, or really a
Christmas film at all apart from the fact it takes place in a rather snowy
location, but I saw Liam Neeson and the promise of a revenge thriller and I
said "count me in"... 30 minutes into it and I wanted out. Here's
why. I honestly think the director (Hans Petter Moland) forgot that his
characters are actual humans. Now let me explain what I mean by this. Humans
are the most complex and advanced creatures on the planet, and what makes us so
complex is our ability to create nearly limitless connections with those around
us, each person has a huge web of connections ranging from friends and family,
to enemies to work colleagues and the waiter who always serves you at your
favourite pub. Each connection has its own unique relationship and this is what
Cold Pursuit seems to completely leave out.
Cold Pursuit falls into the category of a Betrayal & Revenge movie.
Something bad happens to the protagonist so the protagonist seeks revenge.
Simple, right? And this genre is one of the best platforms in showcasing
character development and how trauma can affect an individuals relationships.
Great examples of this would include The Punisher (Netflix) and the Taken Trilogy.
So this is why it pains me to see Liam Neeson so underused in this film,
because we know that he can develop a great and iconic character who goes on a
journey, we've seen this with the Taken Trilogy. However, I'm Cold Pursuit he
his used purely for his screen presence and as a famous face to draw people
into watching this bland, shallow film with character back stories as deep as a
puddle on the pavement.
From the get go we are greeted with Liam's character (Nels), and all we are
told about Nels is that he drives a snow plow and that he's won Citizen of the
Year award. We aren't told why, and we don't see examples of how 'great' Nels
supposedly is to win this award, we are simply told he's great and are expected
to accept that and move on without questioning it. So immediately our
protagonist, the person who we should feel the most connected to in a film, is
just a shell of a person. The moment that triggers Liam to go on a vengeful
killing streak is the death of his son. The death of someone so close to the
protagonist should be impactful and distressing for both the hero and the
audience, however, in this film, the first time we see the son is when he dies,
and this is what was so annoying about this film. We are supposed to believe
that the death of his son could trigger Nels to become a one man army seeking
revenge, however, we are never told anything about the relationship between the
father and son: whether they were extremely close, or if they hated each other;
we don't know the reason the mum and dad split up; did this drive the father
and son apart or draw them closer together? The character of the son just walks
on screen for 30 seconds then dies. And it meant absolutely nothing to me, I
didn't feel anything towards the son or the father or the ramifications of what
just happened because I didn't care about the character, since the film didn't
take any time to flesh out the son and his web of relationships.
This goes for the antagonist of the movie too, the drug lord called Viking. We
are told nothing about him or why he is evil, what are his motivations? What
made him the man he is? But rather than answering these critical questions for
the audience to gives us some background into the character, we just have to
accept that he is evil just because he's evil... There are no stakes in this
movie because every character is expendable, since they are all meaningless
attempts at filling a bland world and trying to make it feel alive. No
introductions past their names, we are just expected to know the in's and out's
of their relationships. And that is just lazy writing to the extreme.
Taking the time to flesh out the character's relationships, their back story's
and their character arcs can immediately make a world feel so much more rich
and diverse and alive, something that you want to explore and want to learn
more about. It can make or break a film, and in Cold Pursuit... It broke it. So
please, please, just spend the first 30 minutes of the film fleshing out the
characters and giving us and insight into the web of relationships so we can
actually feel a connection to our characters.
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