Saturday afternoon….the day has actually been quite filled already between a 4-hour meeting this morning at my home church and then an immediate trip from there to a local cineplex to catch one of this weekend’s new offerings starring arguably one of the newest bankable ACTION stars of the last several years now….and he’s already BEEN a film star far before this! With this stated, I present to you the new release…..”A Walk Among The Tombstones”.
SEE THE TRAILER HERE
Based on the novel by Lawrence Block and adapted for the screen by screenwriter Scott Frank, who also took on the director’s chair for this outing, “A Walk Among The Tombstones” first introduces us to its main character, Matt Scudder (Liam Neeson), in 1991 New York City, where he is a rather crass and rough around the edges cop. During what would appear to be a normal stop by a local bar to drink, the establishment is accosted and in the ensuing commotion and chaos, we are most certainly privy to the fact that Scudder does NOT mess around when it comes to criminals. However, from these moments, we’re whisked away to 8 years later, still in New York City, where Scudder is approached in a local diner by Howie (Eric Nelsen), apparently a face from Scudder’s recent past, who asks him to assist his brother Kenny Kristo (Dan Stevens) with an issue he is having involving the disappearance of his wife. It’s in this situation that we find Scudder is now an unlicensed P.I. who does “favors” for people who in turn give him “gifts”. When Kenny initially advises Scudder what it is he wishes him to do, and ALSO upon figuring out WHAT Kenny actually does for a living, Scudder refuses to help. After Kenny provides him with some additional evidence about the event, however, Scudder decides to assist after all. At first, Scudder relies on doing research about not only this situation, but ends up finding out that the men involved with it have done this before to one of Kenny’s friends, Danny Ortiz (Maurice Compte), who happens to be in the same line of business as Kenny. And the RESULTS of both events has been very, very disturbing. As Scudder questions them, along with witnesses and others related to the victims, Carrie Kristo (Razane Jammal) and Leila Alvarez (Laura Birn), he eventually comes upon James Loogan (Olafur Darri Olafsson), who not only knows about these events, but ends up ultimately finding a decidedly scary way to “help” Scudder’s investigation. Hence we finally get really familiar with Ray (David Harbour) and Albert (Adam David Thompson), two honestly SICK individuals whose entire existence seems to be making particular people’s lives as miserable as possible while they play out their VERY disturbing habits and schemes. When their newest target is the 14-year old daughter, Lucia (Danielle Rose Russell), of yet another friend of Kenny’s, Yuri Landau (Sebastian Roche), Scudder gets more directly involved in the ransom demand and sets in motion an oddly redemptive journey for him and a decidedly violent path for Ray, Albert, Kenny, and Howie as things come to their inevitable conclusion. And in the midst of ALL of this going on, throughout the film, we are treated to glimpses of Scudder’s past and events ties to 1991 that explain the meetings he attends periodically, also that he takes a random encounter with a homeless boy, TJ (Brian “Astro” Bradley), and ultimately tries to help him get to a better place by acting as a surrogate father figure, another a reveal about a third victim, Marie Gotteskind (Marielle Heller), comes about as well. During the film’s final act, the sequence of events eerily unfolds to the voice-over of a girl reading off the “12 Steps of Recovery” from one of Scudder’s meetings…and it just puts some additional punch as the backdrop to the decisions Scudder has to make. As you can already gather, it is a film with a LOT of details, and since Spoiler-ville would be visited if I keep going, I will cease and desist this part of the review.
Well, folks, I have to come right out from the onset and just state it plain….this is one DARK, disturbing story on so many levels. More I think due to the nature of the crimes being committed. Sadly, in themselves, it’s not meaning that from the perspective that OTHER thrillers haven’t covered similar territory, as much as it’s the delivery of the material that can sometimes be done in such a way that it freaks me out more than others. And being I can tell, of course, to make you squirm on SOME level while watching things unfold was most likely the POINT…. The fact that the side story with the boy is IN this film, adding some MUCH needed positive atmosphere, was probably overall one of the few saving graces for me personally. Otherwise, it really is one fateful journey into some REALLY dark places of what humans are capable of doing, and even Scudder trying to STOP it all puts him in the center of a criminal world that he must find a way to deal with without getting TOO caught up in it to an extent that HE might lose his OWN sense of morality in the actions he takes, though again, having TJ in the midst of it all is about the only thing that I felt kept Scudder grounded in the reality and scope of events. I honestly am not trying to overanalyze this thing, but….wow….just twisted stuff, people. Compared to what I thought this DESERVEDLY “R”-rated trip would get into, I guess there were SOME aspects that COULD have been even worse visually and in tone than what was ALREADY bleak to begin with, but be completely warned…don’t take your kids to see this, folks (as sadly, I saw someone in the theater DID!). As to the ACTING, I mean, it IS hard to NOT on SOME level enjoy Neeson playing this type of character, because he just brings that presence to roles now in this vein that play to your sense of “Oh!! I cannot WAIT until the bad guys decide it’s “smart” to mess with him!” because you just KNOW what’s coming and Neeson delivers plenty of lines that most assuredly make that clear. Scudder is without question flawed and battling his inner demons, but yet he does have a moral compass he seems to want to follow in the overall scope of who he is, and again, Neeson successfully brings that out. The supporting cast is solid, especially in particular that Harbour and Thompson TRULY make you LOATHE every fiber of their characters’ being…it’s that blatant. And that constant tone of menace, fear, and depravity boiling in Ray & Albert is tangible on screen. Again, the content is dark, even maybe to some points more than I expected, and for me, certain elements were too extreme, even when not necessarily being SHOWN to us. Knowing this was based on existing fictional material, it still left me overall feeling some regret that I gave it a shot. Liam was pretty much THE driving thought in my mind to even TRY this out, but I wouldn’t be truthful if I said that even he was enough to say I’d recommend this to anyone.
But, as always, this is all for YOUR consideration and comment. Until next time, thank you for reading!
Thanks for the review. It was helpful. I was between this movie and The Maze Runner. If you get a chance, go see The Maze Runner. It’s surprisingly good. Thanks again