FANCY watching Liam Neeson walk a lot onscreen? How about catching him using an actual payphone several times? A Walk Among The Tombstones features dead relics and references that the smartphone and Internetsavvy new generation will find amusing — like the once ubiquitous pay phone and talk of a Y2K bug.
Based on the gritty crime novel of the same name, this noir-like film sees Neeson in top form as a retrograde and tortured ex-police detective, Matthew Scudder.
Set in the late 1990s, Scudder, a recovering alcoholic, is now an unlicensed private invest igator.
He is approached by a junkie, Peter Kristo (Boyd Holbrook), to help his brother Kenny (Dan Stevens), a drug trafficker.
Kenny offers Scudder money to find the men who kidnapped and killed his wife even after they received the ransom money.
Although Scudder refuses to take on the job at first, he later agrees after listening to a recording by the kidnappers detailing how they gruesomely murdered Kenny’s wife.
From here on Scudder does a lot of leg work on the less-populated streets of New York.
He tails potential suspects on foot and does lots of face-to-face interviews with witnesses as he tries to follow the leads and piece together what happened in order to find the culprits.
Along the way he finds an unlikely sidekick in the form of an African American orphan, TJ (Brian Bradley).
TJ, who aspires to be a detective as well, helps Scudder get acquainted with a more high-tech approach to aid in his quest for info — by using the Yahoo search engine on a computer in a library where they first meet.
When Scudder discovers that the killers are on a kidnap-murder spree involving drug traffickers, he advises Kenny to put the word out to all of his associates.
After drug kingpin Yuri Landau’s (Sebastian Roche) daughter is kidnapped, Scudder is brought in to negotiate a deal with the killers in order to nab them as well.
Director and writer Scott Frank keeps things simple and grounded visually without any flash, gloss or gimmicky camera angles.
The look and feel of the film certainly evoke a 1990s style of filmmaking and play out like a tedious pre-CSI era police procedural.
It’s also typically a guy film where the female characters have only bit parts or are exclusively victims in this slow burner crime thriller.
But the great thing about A Walk Among The Tombstones is Neeson himself.
The towering actor certainly has presence here and manages to believably inhabit his role with ease.
Even with a cliched character like Scudder — the melancholic and brooding ex-cop who shoulders a burden — the audience will sy mpat hise a nd root for his redemption.
Fans of Neeson, who are looking for a decent, smart crime film with some thrills that takes its time to unfold, will enjoy A Walk Among The Tombstones.
Just don’t expect a Taken-type thriller, complete with rousing action sequences and extensive gun fights.
You’ll be disappointed.
NOW SHOWING
A WALK AMONG
THE TOMBSTONES
Directed by Scott
Frank
Starring Liam
Neeson, Dan Stevens,
Boyd Holbrook, Brian
Bradley, Sebastian
Roche
Duration: 114
minutes
Rating: 18