Review: The Liability (2012)

Starring: Jack O’Connell, Tim Roth, Talulah Riley and Peter Mullan

Here’s a little gem that may have flown under the radar for a lot of people. Jack O’Connell plays a loutish teenager (again) who gets drawn into the dangerous business of people trafficking and gangland hits in this very British caper.

After crashing and writing off his step dad’s BMW, ninteen year old Adam (O’Connell) has to pay off the debt by helping out in the old man’s shady business of trafficking young girls from Eastern Europe. His first job is drving hit man Roy (Tim Roth) to Newcastle to off some poor shmuck who’s hiding out in a caravan in the middle of the woods. When a young woman stumbles across them during the hit, Adam hesitates to kill the girl and things go predictably awry.

I discovered this movie when looking through O’Connell’s filmography looking for anything I hadn’t seen yet. As usual, he is brilliant in this. Tim Roth, who executive produced, is also a pleasure to watch and, in a smaller, but absolutely ferocious role, Peter Mullan (Tyrannosaur, Hostiles) also puts in a great turn. What is a pretty simple premise and might have made an average movie at best is strengthened by a great cast and a satisfying, if predictable pay off, plus some genuinely funny moments and great lines in the script. I got several lough out loud moments out of this.

Exactly the British hitman crime comedy I was looking for, The Liability is well worth checking out.

7/10