Movie Review: ‘A Walk Among the Tombstones’

A Walk Among the Tombstones Movie Review
Liam Neeson stars in ‘A Walk Among the Tombstones’ (Photo © Universal Pictures)

“Someone’s kidnapped my wife. I paid them, but they killed her anyway. I want you to find the men who did this and bring them to me,” says drug kingpin Kenny Kristo (Dan Stevens) to unlicensed private investigator Matt Scudder (Liam Neeson) in the action thriller, A Walk Among the Tombstones, directed by Scott Frank.

Matt Scudder’s an ex-NYPD detective and recovering alcoholic who now makes his living as an unlicensed PI, doing “favors” for certain people and receiving “gifts” in return. When Kristo reaches out to Scudder to find the men who kidnapped and brutally murdered his wife, Scudder politely declines. But after he’s visited by a distraught Kristo a second time and realizes he’s truly devastated by the loss of his wife, he reconsiders.

Following what few leads he has and enlisting the help of a street-wise runaway kid named TJ (Brian ‘Astro’ Bradley), Scudder soon realizes that this isn’t the first time the two men he suspects have committed this kind of twisted, sick crime and it won’t be their last. Convinced they are targeting drug bosses and are sure to kidnap another woman, Scudder tells Kristo to put the word out to his colleagues about what happened to his wife and that Matt is working the case. When a Russian crime boss’s daughter is taken by the two deviants, he reaches out to Kristo and Scudder to help save his little girl, positioning Scudder to deal with the kidnappers and hopefully set a trap for them before they murder the girl.

Gritty and disturbing, A Walk Among the Tombstones is an effective, dark, crime thriller in the same style as such films as Dirty Harry and Prince of the City. It also has a stand-out performance by Liam Neeson who at age 62 has become the toughest action/drama hero on the big screen today. Neeson is perfectly cast as PI Matt Scudder who works just outside the law while still wrestling with his own inner demons. Not as trustworthy as Phillip Marlow or as clever as Sam Spade, Neeson’s Scudder is still a street-smart, fairly honest, and tough PI who can dish it out just as good as he can take it in any fight. It’s really Neeson’s performance as the almost over-the-hill PI that elevates the film to a higher level.

The direction and pacing of A Walk Among the Tombstones is solid but does get a little sluggish in the middle before getting back on track with the kidnapping of the Russian mobster’s daughter in the latter half of the film. The look and feel of the movie is seedy, taking the audience stylishly down the backstreets and dark alleyways of Brooklyn with Scudder as he hunts the two twisted killers.

Creepy and suspenseful, A Walk Among the Tombstones is an above-average crime thriller due to Liam Neeson’s compelling performance.

GRADE: B-

A Walk Among the Tombstones is rated R for strong violence, disturbing images, language and brief nudity.