A Walk Among the Tombstones (2014)

Directed by: Scott Frank
Country: USA

Movie Review: Liam Neeson dresses the role of Matt Scudder, a former alcoholic cop turned into private eye, who is hired by the drug dealer Kenny Kristo (Dan Stevens) to find more about his wife’s kidnapping and murder, even after her ransom has been paid. The investigation leads to other similar cases of women’s abduction, and Scudder will work with the unwanted help of TJ (Astro), a curious teenager who admits to be a fan of the famous fictional detectives Sam Spade and Philip Marlowe. Approaching witnesses and suspects, Scudder will try to capture the psychos behind the crimes. With a typical mysterious atmosphere, this thriller steps into commonplace territory, never impressing, even in its most agitated situations. The investigation ends up in a collective operation that left me absent-minded, hampering me from caring about the conclusions of a story so many times explored before. “A Walk Among the Tombstones” is the sophomore feature film from Scott Frank, screenwriter of so different films such as “The Wolverine”, “Minority Report”, “Marley & Me”, and “The Lookout”. It was based on Lawrence Block’s novel of the same name, and counted with more than twenty names in the production (executive and non-executive), including Tobin Armbrust, Michael Shamberg, and Danny DeVito. Liam Neeson’s performance became the positive factor in a film that used routine processes as weapon. Not even the bad guys were interesting, and consequently, the result is a wobbly exercise on the conventional, and a too comfortable approach in the action thriller genre.