By Cahir O’Doherty

Seraphim Falls
Starring Liam Neeson, Pierce Brosnan and Anjelica Huston

It begins on the snow-covered mountains, high above the affairs of men. Far from the warmth and fellowship of civilization, two men play out an elaborate game of hunter and hunted, with no apparent justification and no clear end in sight.

On the surface it seems as vicious as it is pointless. Whatever original wrong one man has done to the other has long ago been subsumed by newer outrages. And this brutal vendetta will not end, we quickly realize, until one or both men is dead. The subtle anti-war message is as clear and yet as subtle as could be.

Revenge always comes with a terrible price attached, and once a man or a woman chooses it, it makes all their choices for them. In Seraphim Falls, which opens across the nation this week, Liam Neeson plays Colonel Morsman Carver, a former Southern soldier bent on avenging the death of his family, a terrifying event that was caused by the actions of a Northern soldier played by Pierce Brosnan.

Both Irish actors have been intentionally cast against type, and their performances in this film are a revelation. Neeson’s obvious sensitivity and empathy as an actor have been almost completely bulldozed by the preternatural fury with which he drives his hate-fuelled character for most of the film.

Equally, Brosnan has been cast in the at first unlikely role of a battle hardened (and lethal) military veteran, who’s prime directive now is to escape and survive.

The chase that powers the film and that gives it its elemental mythic quality is compellingly filmed by director David Von Ancken. Even the landscape is like a character in the drama — first we meet the men in the mountain snow, where they are both literally almost frozen in their hatred and suffering.

Then when the pursuit begins we follow them through every kind of harsh environment, grey mirroring their own inner paucity and the wildness of their feelings.

The wild west of Seraphim Falls isn’t the kindly one of Pa and Ma depicted in Laura Ingalls Wilder books. This is a teeming new world populated by fast talking Irish navvys, Chinese railroad workers, hard faced prostitutes and drunken thieving missionaries.

In this country everything comes with a price attached, and it’s usually more than you can afford. There’s no safety here, nothing is sacred, and there’s nowhere to hide when trouble comes.

The mythic engine that propels the film is as old as the fall of man. Brightest of all God’s angels, we remember, are the Seraphim.

The name in Hebrew actually means “fiery, flaming.” Seraphim literally burn with their love of God, and the brightest of all of Seraphim was Lucifer, whose name means “Light Bearer.”

The soldier who comes seeking revenge in Seraphim Falls is not a light bearer, but instead the hate filled demi-monster that Lucifer has become. In single mindedly pursuing justice for a monstrous crime he is steadily making a monster of himself.

The mythic elements in Seraphim Falls are very deftly handled. Neeson plays a kind of old West Captain Ahab in pursuit of the thing that has marred his life.

On the hunt for Gideon (played by Brosnan) Neeson’s character comes across an abandoned wagon train. A dust covered, broken piano stands amid a filed of scrub. Nearby a wagon’s torn curtain flaps in the wind like a discarded and forgotten flag after a battle.

The scene is completely forlorn and lonely, and Neeson’s riding companion remarks on it. Neeson replies that sometimes a man makes a decision that leads his life to a dénouement like this, and once he makes that choice nothing can stop it.

That observation is at the heart of Seraphim Falls. It’s not what happens to us in life, but the choices we make, that make or break us.

Anjelica Houston is luminous as the snake oil saleswoman who drives a hard bargain. What will a man choose in a desert: a bullet to shoot another man or a can of water to revive himself? How you answer the questions determines everything that will happen to you later.

There are many mythic elements in Seraphim Falls and it’s not important that you identify them all — and indeed you need never think of them — because you’ll be heartily entertained by the epic journey this inspired film takes you on.