Film Review - A Walk Among The Tombstones (2014)

At the Theater - "A Walk Among The Tombstones" - (2014) - Liam Neeson stars as Matthew Scudder, a former cop turned Private Detective who is hired by a wealthy drug trafficker to track down those responsible for the kidnapping and subsequent murder of his young wife.  I had been looking forward to this film for quite some time and was hoping for a smart, gritty, adult-oriented Crime/Thriller of the first order, yet found a frustratingly muddled and uninspired entry- it does start off promisingly enough, though slowly, but surely, devolves into just another mediocre thriller vehicle for its star.  Neeson is a fine actor and puts in solid work here, yet he can only carry matters so far.

The narrative is predictable and slack, hampered by an uneven script, inconsistent tone and fumble-some direction from Scott Frank.  Every hint of intelligent, seasoned film-making, every notion of subtlety and nuance is countered with amateurish blemishes.  Frank has churned out an impressive resume as a screenwriter (Get Shorty, Minority Report, Out of Sight) and helmed the criminally under-seen "The Lookout", yet strangely appears bewildered with the heart of the material.

Upon reflection, I was perplexed with a number of unnecessary segments and insignificant stock characters- there's very little mystery element to speak of, so setting up potential suspects and red herrings is clearly not the intent.  This particular tale (set in 1999) is laced with Y2K paranoia references and contradictory anti-gun messages, eating up the precious soul (and run-time) of a narrative that should have spent more time fleshing out characters, particularly Neeson's alcoholic, ex-cop turned gumshoe.

Nearly every principal player outside of Neeson's lead is woefully miscast, including a tandem of the most generic serial killers (David Harbor and Adam David Thompson) to have ever been featured upon the silver screen in a serious-minded thriller.  For what it's worth, the film is void of any notable female characters with more than one line of dialogue.

Potential viewers can expect quite a bit of footage of our hero pounding the pavement doing old-school detective work, with one memorable rooftop encounter with a hulking graveyard groundskeeper.  There is one late film gun battle riddled with an extremely odd and distracting juxtaposition of AA's 12 step program, while a climactic showdown between good and evil, set in a dark basement, never really should have reached that point.

For those interested, Matt Scudder is the central character featured in 17 novels (including one collection of short stories) from author Lawrence Block.  Scudder has graced the big screen once before, as played by Jeff Bridges in 1986's 8 Million Ways To Die - it's a scattershot affair, but worth a watch. A Walk Amongst The Tombstones was intended to kick-start a franchise of Scudder films, though I'm pretty sure a weak box-office turnout should put an end to that... for a while anyways.

A Walk... features a forgettable original score from Carlos Rafael Rivera, though Nouela's cover of Soundgarden's Black Hole Sun, which plays with the onset of the post-film credits, is mighty interesting.  Mihai Malaimare Jr. supplies the cinematography- it's fine during night-time sequences though barely serviceable during daytime scenes... figure that.

The film isn't awful, though it is nowhere near the neighborhood of very good.  All things considered, I would chalk it up as one of the more substantial personal cinematic disappointments of 2014.  Perhaps HBO's outstanding season 1 of True Detective has set the bar too high for future theatrically released Crime/Drama/Thrillers for myself...

Skip it in theaters and wait for rental.

6.5 out of 10

Director: Scott Frank
Cast: Liam Neeson, Dan Stevens, David Harbour, Robert Boyd Holbrook, Adam David Thompson, Brian "Astro" Bradley, Sebastian Roche, Olafur Darri Olafsson and Mark Consuelos
Run-Time: 113 minutes
MPAA: Rated R for strong violence, disturbing images, language and brief nudity