Seraphim Falls - Movie Review

Starring Pierce Brosnan and Liam Neeson in a 2006 western about survival and vengeance, I thought Seraphim Falls was brilliant.

It was actually just before the guy in the top hat at the pond shows up that the thought had crossed my mind that this journey feels like an endless purgatory, so to see first him and then the lady at the end show up certainly fit in with that line of thinking of what this movie was representing. It literally bookends itself with agony, starting in the freezing snow where Brosnan's character is trying to start a fire for warmth, and ending up in the blistering heat of the desert, leaving our characters desperate for water.

I thought it intriguing how both our characters' journeys move forward in opposite parallels. Brosnan's character starts off with a team of soldiers behind him, but after the incident, he finds himself alone and wanting to be left alone. He does some bad things along his journey, but it's all in the name of survival. He kills people to stay alive, he kills his horse out of mercy. Meanwhile, Neeson's character starts off alone and wanting for he and his family to be left alone. But after the incident, he forms a team to go on the hunt, and he does some bad things along his journey, and it's all in the name of his blind vengeance. People die under his watch, he kills people in order to exact his revenge, and he kills his horse out of pettiness after someone abandoned his mission.

But both paths lead these men to the same place in the end, that being an inescapable purgatory where the only way out is to let go. Brosnan finally stops running, and tells Neeson to end it. And Neeson lets go, and instead walks away, lest he lose himself in the process.

I thought this was excellent. And the survival aspect, particularly during the snow scenes, were exhilarating, and often reminded me of The Revenant. I had actually never heard of this movie before now, but seeing how good it is, I'm now a bit curious as to why that might be.