A Walk Among The Tombstones

Directed by 

Scott Frank

Starring 

Liam Neeson

Dan Stevens

David Harbour

Let’s stretch poetic licence as far as we can here and rename A Walk Among The Tombstones. Let’s give it a more appropriate title. Let’s give it something that really gets to the heart of the movie. Taken – Light. There, that was easy! And therein lays the problem. Much like the affliction that will haunt Aaron Paul throughout his career, if you give Liam Neeson a gun and a phone, you are automatically watching Taken. Since the massive success of Taken, Neeson has starred in The Grey, Taken 2, The Dark Knight Rises, Battleship and Wrath Of The Titans. It’s almost as if Schindler’s List never happened. 

The reason I refer to the movie as Taken - Light is because that’s what it is. Imagine Taken if you subtracted the majority of the budget, nobody travelled to Europe and if our hero “hunted down” what were, ultimately, cheaper, tackier bad guys. The movie even tries to replicate the epic phone conversation from Taken which we all know by now. It fails. Miserably. The lines are feeble and the movie lacks the suspense necessary to make this flick anything other than a poor substitute for the real thing. No, non-alcoholic beer is not just as nice and no, Diet Coke is not as satisfying. 

As an exercise in fairness, let’s examine the movie as if Taken never happened. Neeson plays the part of Matt Scudder, an ex-cop turned off-the-books private detective who has the skills to make life difficult for yada yada yada. The main story revolves around the kidnapping of drug dealers’ wives. Yes, you read that correctly. We are expected to feel pity for drug dealers – the bane of modern society. Are we to just pretend that these people don’t have horrible day jobs that prey off the weak and the vulnerable?

“Oh I am sorry Mr Hitler, I will try to get your wife back in your loving arms as soon as possible.” Something about that picture doesn’t quite command my empathy.

The action is substandard for what is an action movie and perhaps most alarmingly, there are no chase scenes in a movie that cries out for one. In fact, the story is so undeserving of your empathy that you are left to look for something that warrants your affection.

This brings me the best thing about AWATT; the relationship between Neeson and his homeless young protégé, played by Brian Bradley. The bond between the odd couple of crime detection draws you in, makes you laugh and really care about the two of them by the end. This is the movie’s greatest achievement. One thing the makers of the movie did right was to utilise Neeson’s great talent as an actor. They effectively try to build the movie around the relationships between him and his co-stars. The only problem is, the story was pathetic for the most part. Even by the end of the movie, other than Neeson and his little buddy, I did not care a jot about any of the other players in the movie. The bad guys were more slapstick than intimidating and I feel as though I actually know less about Neeson’s character than I did when the movie began. Sure, there’s the odd life-changing, epiphanous flashback straight from an 80's B movie but it presents you with more questions than answers. Namely, why did Neeson ever shave off that goatee? Spartans faces are in right now and for most they are disgraceful but on Neeson, he looks like a proud, carnivorous beast, straight from the planes of the Serengeti – magnificent!

Movies don’t have to be made on huge budgets but if you don’t have the budget, you need a fine cast and a riveting story to make a good movie. Neeson fails to save this movie from becoming the parody of an action movie that it is.

The ending - if you can call it that - while final, leaves a sour taste in the mouth. The t's are crossed and the lower case j's are dotted…but is that it? Is that all we get? The movie builds up to a huge climax but for some reason we’re not allowed to see it. Did they run out of money to shoot the most important part of the film? Perhaps this is a kick in the face to the punters, just like the end of The Sopranos. One would hope not - that show gave us years of riveting televisual orgasms to qualify that anomaly.

I should probably try and say nice things about the movie now. Well, there are two. Sometimes the movie is so dark and unerring that it echoes some of the taboo subjects from the thrilling Prisoners, starring Hugh Jackman. The movie pushes boundaries and moral buttons, even if only for a short time. However, the biggest positive of the movie is the fact that Neeson doesn’t have a horrible ex-wife named after laundry detergent and a spoiled-rotten daughter ruining his existence as he tries to save the day. That’s one thing that this movie has over Taken…and that is about it!

The movie’s tagline is also the film’s most stirring line – “people are afraid of all the wrong things”. This alludes to a darkness could have opened a door to a whole new movie and could have separated the film from everything Taken about the movie. Sadly, they didn’t have the bravery or testicular fortitude to follow through. Very disappointing - much like the movie itself.

As for Neeson; it says it all when there is a Taken 3 in the works and a cinematic masterpiece like Schindler’s List will never happen again. Money talks and the people want dross!

Rating - UUU

Trailer - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O6Ttj9tXzCA