A Walk Among The Tombstones takes place in 1999, back during the Y2K craze (which gives way to the films tagline: People are afraid of all the wrong things). In it, we follow Matt Scudder (Liam Neeson), a retired detective who now works as an independent PI. When he is contacted by a drug trafficker (Dan Stevens) and his brother Peter(Boyd Holbrook) to assist in finding the men who kidnapped, tortured, and killed his wife Scudder finds himself reluctantly entangled in a dark mystery. The men responsible are still out there, they've done this before and it's quite likely they plan on doing it again. With an inept police force patrolling the streets, it looks like it may be up to Scudder to bring the men to justice.
Contrary to popular belief, Tombstones is not an action film. Liam Neeson does not go around beating in baddies skulls, in fact, there is very little action to be found here at all. Believe it or not, I think the lack of action is actually one of the film's stronger points. This easily could have devolved into a violent shoot-em-up ala Taken but Tombstones stays its course. Instead, A Walk Among The Tombstones is classic detective noir all the way. It's quiet, dark, deliberate, and thrilling.
While Liam Neeson is by no means an action star here, he is still super bad-ass and is treated to some really superb scenes including a few where he gets to threaten unseen baddies over the phone (probably the only resemblance to Taken this film really has). This is without a doubt Liam Neeson's best role in recent memory. He's very nuanced and layered here, a real complex character that is fun to spend some quality time with (and we do spend lots of quality time with him, we really get to know what makes this guy tick).
There are also some great supporting performances here including Boyd Holbrook as junkie Peter, Dan Stevens as drug trafficker and grieving husband Kenny (Stevens is fantastic here, look for him next in The Guest), and Brian "Astro" Bradley as hoodlum TJ who forces himself onto Scudder as his partner (Astro manages to emerge as one of the standouts here. He's got a natural charisma to him and his character is super likable). One of the cool things about Tombstones is that almost every character is some kind of low life, and the film actually sympathizes with the drug dealers (a nice little twist). What also helps elevate the tension and suspense that the baddies here are genuinely evil, sinister people that are quite scary. The only characters in this film who are more-or-less clean are Scudder and TJ, and even then both have skeletons in their closets.
Tombstones takes it's time getting to it's climax, and there is a significant period where the film kind of drags a bit. Luckily, it's climax is pretty great and thrilling, and the way the film builds to it is expertly done. A Walk Among The Tombstones is easily one of the best films I've seen this year. It shows off Liam Neeson at what is arguably the best we've seen him at in a while, it's got a fantastic, rich, dark story, and it's slow and deliberate (almost thoughtful) pace helps up the tension and suspense. Simply put: A Walk Among The Tombstones is one great film.
4/5 STARS
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