Cinemazlowski 'A Walk Among the Tombstones' review

Sep 19, 2014

Ever since he reinvented himself as an action star in the 2009 surprise hit “Taken,” Liam Neeson has succeeded Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger as the leading cinematic butt-kicker of our times. Yet while his string of thrillers has been fun and generally well-produced, they have begun to take on a sense of sameness, leaving serious viewers wishing that Neeson would dial things down a notch and again show some of the gravitas he used to classic effect in his prior career as a thoughtful thespian in films like “Schindler’s List” and “Love Actually.”

His new movie, “A Walk Among the Tombstones,” written and directed by ace screenwriter Scott Frank (“Minority Report,” “Marley and Me”) and based on a novel by popular mystery writer Lawrence Block, is a strong and mostly effective attempt to bring both sides of Neeson’s career together. In it, he plays Matthew Scudder, an unlicensed New York City detective (read: vigilante investigator) who used to be a cop until he went on a drunken off-duty rampage against a gang of bar-robbing thugs eight years before, with tragic results.

Now living a lonely existence, with his prime human contact coming from Alcoholics Anonymous meetings, Scudder is approached by a fellow group member asking him to help his brother find his kidnapped wife before her abductors can kill her. Scudder learns that the brother, Kenny Kristo (Dan Stevens) is a drug smuggler and almost refuses the job of finding his wife.

But when Scudder learns that his wife has been dismembered, with her parts left in bags in the back of a deserted car despite the fact he ponied up $400,000 for her safe return, Scudder gets involved. With the help of a homeless African-American teen boy named TJ, he finds a pattern of similar kidnappings and killings — with all of the victims being the wives or girlfriends of drug dealers and smugglers.

Chasing this intriguing pattern of leads, Scudder finds himself up against a pair of disturbed psychopaths with mysterious government ties, and soon finds himself looking into the darkest corners of humanity while battling his own demons. The result is a compelling and artfully made thriller with more on its mind and in its sad heart than most such films.

Yet while “Walk” is a well-made and often thoughtful film, especially for the action genre, its central criminal plot of female abductions and dismemberment raises some disturbing questions about both Hollywood filmmakers and modern audiences themselves. While most of the movie merely refers to or gives just enough of a glimpse of the violence or corpses to convey what’s going on, one particular scene — in which a bound and gagged woman is asked by the killers which breast she likes most before it’s implied they cut one off and leave her to die — is simply repellant.

Sure, Neeson’s character and the filmmakers aren’t endorsing that behavior. But at the same time, to dwell on a scene like that for a couple minutes nonetheless feels exploitative and is simply beneath Neeson and this film. We as viewers have long since realized these guys are bad news, so there’s no need to take it that far – though to make it clear, this is a brief mistake in an otherwise far above average thriller.

On the other hand, Neeson brings impressive depth to his role as Scudder, and its strong portrayal of AA and its spiritual aspects show how much heart a superior screenwriter like Frank can bring to even the coldest of subjects. A major shootout that cuts between gunplay and an AA meeting’s recitation of the 12 principles, laden with heavy scriptural undertones, is quite simply powerful.

Add in Scudder’s offbeat yet touching friendship with the homeless TJ (an ace performance by a young actor named Astro), and “A Walk Among the Tombstones” rises above most thrillers to be a film that’s worth thinking about once the lights come up in the theater.