A Walk Among the Tombstones:
In 1991, alcoholic New York City cop Matthew Scudder takes down some thieves who shoot up a bar. 8 years later, he has now quit drinking and is working as a private detective. He is hired by a man to find his missing wife, but as the plot thickens, Scudder discovers there's more to this seemingly run-of-the-mill kidnapping than he was expecting.
Now, despite being a relatively cliche thriller, I actually was very pleased with this film. Liam Neeson's whole "unstoppable bad-ass" persona is toned down pretty significantly in this movie, and he barely ever gets into shootouts or fist-fights, which was refreshing. The cast, made up mostly of people known for either TV roles or bit parts, does a pretty solid job. Dan Stevens of Downton Abbey, Boyd Holbrook, and Sebastian Roche are all very good supporting actors, and the child actor Brian "Astro" Bradley may have a pretty cliched role, but I didn't find him annoying at any point and actually cared about he and Neeson's relationship. The villains, played by David Harbour and Adam David Thompson, are very cheesy villains who are just a little too over-the-top for my tastes, but ultimately, they weren't enough to make me dislike the movie.
The music by Carlos Rafael Rivera was a little bland for me and some of the choices for what music to set to some scenes felt a little off (especially the final shot), but ultimately it wasn't so much that it detracted from the overall story. The ending showdown at the cemetery was a really good way to end the film (only it technically didn't end there) and I liked that they actually built tension to the final fight rather than just have the whole movie be a string of constant fights and shootings.
Although the ending dragged on for a bit and started to test my suspension of disbelief, it ultimately felt like a good way to end the movie. I also felt the mystery of the film was intriguing until about half-way through when you basically find out what the killers' motive is. There's also some unresolved questions and plot-holes, but unlike in some movies where that adds another layer of mystery which makes the movie more fun to analyze, in this it just feels like lazy writing and maybe some bad directorial and editing decisions.
Overall, A Walk Among the Tombstones doesn't feel as fresh or exhilarating as Taken, but it also doesn't feel as stupid as Unknown. It's got a lot of thriller movie cliches and tropes, but it also does try to do some new things and provides Liam Neeson with an actual three-dimensional character to play and not just a one-dimensional caricature like in Taken 2 or Non-Stop. It's a nice little thriller and I definitely would recommend it to fans of slower action stories or fans of Neeson, and who isn't these days? 3.5/5 stars.
(Image: Wikipedia)
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