A Walk Among the Tombstones Review
If you're not familiar with A Walk Among the Tombstones, it's based on Lawrence Block's series of crime novels about a retired cop who is now an unlicensed detective that, in exchange for "gifts", carries out private investigations for people. I, myself, have not read the books, but when I heard about this movie, it immediately caught my interest. Pretty much any film starring Liam Neeson will catch my interest, but this one in particular did because of the tone portrayed in the trailer. It looked grim, it looked muggy, it looked ambiguous. For once, it wasn't Liam Neeson killing people just because that's entertaining (though that is very entertaining). It looked like there was a real story behind it, a story that evoked thought-provoking themes. Was it all that I was expecting?
For the most part, yes it was. A Walk Among the Tombstones has more on its mind than just to show Liam Neeson solving a crime and killing some people. Those things are in the movie, but there are also moments given to the audience to think about what's going on, to take it all in. A lot of movies nowadays throw everything they have at you all at once. While that might be sufficient in the moment, that film will surely start to fade as time elapses. To really leave a lasting impression, a movie has to breath. There have to be opportunities for the people watching to comprehend the actions that are taking place and actually think about them. As I said, this movie did that, which is a credit to director Scott Frank's strong grasp on pace and timing.
As you know by now, Liam Neeson's in this movie. He does his usual Liam Neeson things, but there is also an aspect to his character that I found very compelling in his portrayal, and that was his sobriety, and the events that drove him to quit drinking in the first place. For the entirety of the film, you feel as if his character is seeking redemption for something that he did while he was a cop. It was an accident, but he still feels that guilt inside him, and he wants to somehow eradicate that guilt. I thought Neeson did a great job showing this side of the character.
The rest of the cast actually did a great job as well. Dan Stevens played the guy who hires Neeson to find the men that killed his wife, and I was very impressed with his performance. I had previously seen him as Matthew Crawley on the British drama series Downton Abbey, a role I thought he excelled at. This is a very different role, but Stevens transitions pretty seamlessly. The other cast members are pretty much all unknowns, but did fine jobs.
The pace of this movie is methodical. As I mentioned, that helped make the movie a little more thought-provoking, but also helped build suspense. Instead of throwing you into a series of nonstop action sequences, it gradually piles on tension. This is almost always the most effective way to pull the audience into the movie. I have to say, there were a few brief moments where I felt totally engrossed in the film, and pretty much forgot I was watching a movie. That is basically the highest praise I can give a film. The moments were brief, but they did happen.
It probably sounds like I loved this movie, but there were some problems I had with it. One of these was the predictability and lack of originality. If you're in to detective thrillers or neo-noir films, you'll probably find yourself guessing what will happen next quite often. There aren't any mind-blowing twists or genre-shattering plot points. It follows a pretty standard structure. The execution is good enough for this not to be too much of an issue, but there were times where I got kind of annoyed because of this.
All in all, though, this is a really solid crime thriller that boasts strong performances, particularly from Liam Neeson and Dan Stevens. The direction by Scott Frank was very good, and I'll be interested in checking out his future works. The writing wasn't all that amazing, and there were plenty of times I found myself guessing what was going to happen next. However, if you like these types of movies, this is a good one to go see.
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