By Chris Olson
Liam Neeson gives his best performance since Taken, in this utterly gripping and enthralling Thriller based on the book by Lawrence Block. Set in the malevolent streets of New York, in the areas where law enforcement have little authority, a private detective called Matt Scudder (Neeson) gets drawn into a disturbing kidnapping.
The film opens with Neeson appearing like a drunken bum with a badge in a bar. The bar gets robbed by armed thugs, causing Scudder to chase the robbers in the streets and popping caps in lots of asses. Jumping eight years on, Scudder no longer has the badge (well he does, but he is no longer a cop and just uses the badge for his own ends), but is cleaned up and sober, taking private jobs using his “particular set of skills”. Any eastern European baddies should scatter now…
One job comes up which at first seems too dirty even for a guy called Scudder; attempting to find the killers of a drug dealer’s wife. Even with 20K up front, Matt declines the case, but as more of the kidnapping’s darker details come to light it seems this private dick will be coming out to play (even as I wrote that it felt wrong).
Dark, oily, and (appropriately) sobering, A Walk Among The Tombstones is how a Thriller should be! It has the atmosphere of a film like Se7en and the unravelling of a film like Ransom.
Matt as the lead character does not conform to typical clichés, even when he becomes a surrogate father to a street punk called TJ (Brian Bradley). His heroism is limited to a diluted sense of urban ethics, teaching TJ not to have a gun - not because it is wrong or illegal, but because it will most likely be the kid’s death. But for the most part, Matt shows little emotion, keeping a stony façade of indifference - even when TJ is hospitalised from a beat down.
Another refreshing avoidance of typical Thriller clichés is A Walk Among The Tombstone’s approach to a mystery plot. It reveals along the way without resorting to ridiculous twists and turns, which have becomes the norm, and still manages to keep a gripping sense of tension. Perfect for fans of the darker side of Taken.
A slight throwback to nineties thrillers, AWATT doesn’t redefine the genre, but it does dig up some old bones and make a freaking good show of them.
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