A Walk Among the Tombstones Fails to Impress

One of the great things about actor Liam Neeson is his ability to elevate even the most standard material he is given. Ever since Taken, he has reinvented himself as the experienced grizzled action star. Neeson is often the best thing about many of these gritty action thrillers he signs on for.

In A Walk Among the Tombstones, there are less human traffickers and wolves to fight, aiming more towards neo-noir thriller. But, he is still the best thing about this otherwise insubstantial and mediocre film.

Tombstones lacks the real thrills or emotions to call it a successful film, but because of Neeson and its mildly interesting mystery, it is interesting enough to merit one viewing. It will entertain you for about two hours, but it will not do much else.

Tombstones is a neo-noir taking place in 1999 Manhattan. Neeson plays Matt Scudder, a troubled ex-cop going through the AA program after an incident eight years earlier. He works as an unlicensed private investigator to make his living.

One day a man from his AA group comes to Scudder and offers him a job working for his drug dealing brother, played by Dan Stevens. The drug dealer’s wife was kidnapped, and he wants Matt to track down the kidnapper. This drags Neeson into a dark world of drug dealers and serial killers as he searches for who has been murdering numerous women.

Neeson is perfectly cast as Matt Scudder, the jaded, world-weary, sarcastic ex- cop with a troubled past and a guilty conscience. He brings a sense of dark humor to many of the interactions he has with the numerous idiots and low- lifes he is forced to deal with. Neeson excels at the sarcasm and put-downs his character uses and regularly convinces us that he is the smartest guy in the room.

The film is really just a star vehicle for Neeson, in the same way that Taken or The Grey was. Unfortunately, the film lacks the energy or thrills that made Taken so entertaining or the philosophical content that made The Grey so engaging. The film attempts to tackle some deeper issues of guilt and redemption, but this often results in it becoming ponderous.

The overall plot is not terribly original; there are several elements that are easily recognized from other Neeson thrillers. The mystery is engaging enough to keep it from being boring, but there’s nothing shocking about its numerous twists. Meanwhile most of the supporting cast-members, including an underused Dan Stevens, do not really have enough screen time or content to stand out as real characters. They are mostly just used to move the plot along. The only exception to this is actor Brian Bradley as TJ, the homeless teenager who takes Scudder on as a very reluctant mentor. Their relationship is the only real content the film has, but even this is not explored enough.

I did not hate or even dislike Tombstones. But, the more I think about it after the fact, the more I realize how lackluster it really is. It is competently put together and gets far on Liam Neeson’s charisma, and for some viewers that may be more than enough.

I was perfectly content to sit through one viewing. Without much more content, there is no outstanding reason I would want to see it again.