The story is of Michael MacCauley (Liam Neeson) a failed insurance salesman who use to be a cop gets an offer by a mysterious woman on a train Joanna (Vera Fermiga) to identify a person on a train and he'd get paid handsomely if he locates the person who "doesn't fit in."
As a former cop, this organization assumes he could pick this person out. And therein lies the ridiculous high concept movie
Whilst a strong start with setting up the story, it slowly turns into a half-baked logical flaw after logical flaw, and will leave you just flabbergasted as to how this went into production.
While Liam Neeson gives his all, this movie felt like that time you went to rent something at Blockbuster based on name alone and it became something else at the end. It's a massive let down with a feeling that director Jaume Collett-Serra was phoning this in. A lot is compared to "Non-Stop." Both mass transit, both identifying someone in a confined space (very Hitchcockian). But what elevated that movie versus this one is that there was no way off a plane. In this subway version, it didn't seem to matter much...what the risks were. And at a certain point, and it's never built up...the game is no longer even interesting...to identify the person. It's also a very frustrating movie since it adds unnecessary exposition or false direction to throw you off. People look at him funny, or he does crazy things to identify the person but isn't thrown off the subway for being just acting weird. They address it, but only to keep the plot moving.
The ultimate reveal isn't even that...exciting. Neither is the ending, which swells in music tones but seems tired at this point.
"The Commuter" runs out of track too early (get it?). It was a cool idea but it seems the concept far outweighed the potential. You just feel there was a better movie here at some point.
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