A briefcase with undisclosed contents – sought by Irish terrorists and the Russian mob – makes its way into criminals' hands. An Irish liaison assembles a squad of mercenaries, or 'ronin', and gives them the thorny task of recovering the case.
The early part of Ronin offers many interesting opportunities for testing mettle. […] While carefully sizing up one another, the principals sustain their cagey detachment in ways that give the film a genuinely European flavor.
— Janet Maslin (The New York Times)
The wonderfully dreary atmosphere Frankenheimer [c]reates is easy to slide into and roll around in. This is a world of men without women, as Hemingway called it -- of harshness and weird hours, where a guy has no reason to shave because no one's going to get that close to him anyway. That Deirdre is young and pretty only emphasizes the sexlessness of these fellows.
— Mick LaSalle (SFGate)
