Cold Pursuit

Liam Neeson again showcases a very particular set of skills in Cold Pursuit, which include the ability to dish out vigilante justice wearing a bulky parka and steel-toed snow boots.

Despite an amusing contrast between the white wintry landscapes and a dark sense of humor, this remake of the 2014 Norwegian thriller In Order of Disappearance suffers from a central mystery that rarely heats up.

The setting shifts from Scandinavia to the fictional Colorado resort town of Kehoe, where Nels (Neeson) is the mild-mannered and highly respected snowplow driver. “People come here to ski, have sex, and get high,” explains one of the police detectives assigned to the case.

However, the quiet life of Nels and his wife (Laura Dern) is shattered when his adult son (Micheal Richardson) is found dead from what he’s told is a heroin overdose. Convinced that his kid wasn’t an addict, Nels suspects foul play.

So he seeks vengeance against the perpetrators with ruthless intensity. His investigation leads him to a megalomaniacal cartel boss known as The Viking (Tom Bateman), whose network of henchmen is targeted one by one.

At its core, Cold Pursuit is an offbeat character study about an unassuming man’s grief-fueled quest for vengeance at all costs. Neeson can sleepwalk through these types of thrillers by now, yet he brings depth and complexity to his role — memorably played by Stellan Skarsgard in the first film — in service of a script by that doesn’t always warrant such an effort.

The periphery characters aren’t nearly as compelling, yet they consume significant screen time. The Viking is particularly insufferable, which isn’t nearly as big of an issue as the face that he’s uninteresting.

Norwegian director Hans Petter Moland, who also helmed the original film, returns for this redo and provides some visual highlights, such as some effective bursts of nonchalant violence made more potent by the scenic and pristine backdrop of mountain ranges and snow drifts.

This effort is more straightforward than its predecessor, while never generating consistent suspense as it juggles the determination of Nels with flashbacks filling in the narrative gaps about his son’s demise. There’s not much room for examining motives or moral ramifications in a story that funnels toward an inevitable conclusion, but loses momentum before it gets there.

Rated R, 118 minutes.