A Walk Among The Tombstones isn’t a very ambitious picture. It doesn’t really try to be very different from the dozens of other slick, pulpy crime thrillers that have emerged from the last decade. But within the narrow bounds of this genre, A Walk Among the Tombstones emerges as a really solid piece work, thanks mostly to the clever guidance of genre veteran Scott Frank, and the always-welcome presence of scenes where Liam Neeson growls angrily into a phone.
The film casts Neeson as Matthew Scudder, the unlicensed private detective from the novels of Lawrence Block. The story takes place in 1999, eight years after an event that changed the trajectory of Scudder’s life. He is hired by drug trafficker Kenny Kristo (Dan Stevens) to investigate the kidnapping and subsequent murder of his wife. Scudder is quickly put on the trail of a pair of dangerous criminals with a penchant for chopping up their victims.
There are no real tricks here. The movie isn’t trying to do new things with the genre, nor is it building to some mind-blowing twist. It is a straightforward detective story, with Scudder slowly putting the pieces together, mostly through a combination of luck, guts and patience. The film revels in the mundane details of investigation, which largely involve walking around New York City, talking to people and sifting through conflicting details. It’s very basic stuff, but the film pulls it off expertly. But one does feel the lack of ambition at times. Would it really have hurt the film, for example, to transcend the tropes of the genre by developing at least one female character that isn’t a victim or a waitress?
The film functions within a very limited world, and while it shows a real command over these elements, it doesn’t really feel like that much of an achievement. There are clever touches here and there, but they don't really amount to a whole lot in the end, the film unable to really make the tenuous connection between its violent events and the personal journey that the main character is taking.
But it is still a solid little genre exercise, thanks largely to its director and its star. Scott Frank made his career adapting tricky, pulpy material, making them work on screen. And his expertise shows here. His style is workmanlike at best, but it really serves the material. And Liam Neeson makes the perfect tough guy private detective. What Neeson brings that most tough guy actors can’t is an ability to undersell his threat. He hardly needs to raise his voice to project the possibility of pain. He embeds a history of pain in the gravel in his voice, and that gives substance to the character’s fearlessness. There is one scene in this film where he talks a guy out of attacking him with a knife. And it’s completely believable, because Neeson is always the toughest guy in the room.
A Walk Among the Tombstones can hardly be considered a great film, but it is oddly satisfying. A better film would have tried more; it would have fought harder to transcend the limits of the genre. And yet it would be folly to completely disregard the expertise with which these meager goals were reached. And really, there is nothing wrong with just wanting to see Liam Neeson threatening bad guys over the phone. He is just terribly good at it, and it’s always a pleasure to witness.
My Rating:
