"SERAPHIM FALLS"/NICE NAME, BAD PLACE

It is an archetypal storyline: a determined man, hell bent on revenge, tracks another through the forlorn landscapes of the American west. So how can it be freshly done?

One way might be to set it in late 1860s Nevada, just after the Civil War is over and have four desperate men, led by Neeson, a former Union colonel bent on revenge for the death of his wife at Seraphim Falls, tracking an even more desperate fifth man, Brosnan, a former Confederate.

Okay, even this is not absolutely fresh. But it can be taut and thrilling.

At times the hunters get near their prey - hell, they even manage to shoot and wound him - but Brosnan carries on, leaving blood and woe behind him, not least of all because he is right handy with a knife.

Gradually they pass most of the limited humanity in the area – the bleak settlements, the lone settlers, a wagon train, a rail crew, and an Indian philosopher – until they leave the stunning Western America landscapes behind and enter into an unknown no man’s land, where the stark passion of their psychological battle plays out its final act.

Neeson has been conspicuous by his absence since his appearances in Batman Begins and, to a less extent, The Chronicles of Narnia (he was playing a lion after all), but he relishes his single-minded role here. Next up are Luc Besson’s Taken (2008), where Neeson plays a spy forced to employ his skills to rescue his estranged daughter from the slave trade and Spielberg’s Lincoln (2009), where he plays the tall man himself.