Seraphim Falls

Shortly after the American Civil War, a man is running though a snowy forest in Oregon: his name is Gideon (Pierce Brosnan). His ancient enemy Carver (Liam Neeson) has hired a team of four men to track him down and kill him. But Gideon is bright and in total connection with nature, whereas Carver is blinded by rage.

At the root of the old grudge between the two is a terrible tragedy that Gideon did not want to stop. Their cat and mouse game will come to an end in the desert, where both Gideon and Carver meet their destiny: revenge is not the only way of dealing with the past, especially when life is at stake.

TV director David Von Ancken’s first feature work for the big screen is an evergreen, albeit not always successful genre: the western.
But he and co-writer Abby Everett Jaques add a layer of mythical/religious symbolism, while depicting two characters imbued with the fury of beasts from hell along with the cold determination of god-like creatures.
Gideon, in particular, shows no respect for the dead and uses them as mere objects for his advantage: watch out for a couple of gory scenes.
Despite being an action movie, Seraphim Falls rests on an interesting psychological background: Carver’s extreme rationality and one-track-mindedness turn to obsession and madness; Gideon’s primal instinct is a peculiar take on common sense and cleverness.

The script is tarnished by a minor plot hole: the whole dynamic of the disgrace that Carver’s family endured doesn’t really hold up, and the religious sect sequence could have dug deeper.
But right at the end Von Ancken cracks the whip again: and the Devil appears. Remarkably, the director makes this epiphany feel natural and totally believable; in a moment, the characters’ actions become clear, and even the title of the film finally makes more sense than its topographic meaning.
Whether Gideon and Carver are still alive when they get to the desert, or they have already turned into damned souls, is debatable.
But the sense of exhaustion the actors give is as intense as ever. 
 

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