Suspenseful, thrilling and whodunit are three words that describe “A Walk Among the Tombstones.”
In this film, former NYPD detective Matt Scudder, played by Liam Neeson, takes on a gruesome homicide investigation that pulls him into a web of drug trafficking and grisly crime scenes, despite his reluctance to get involved because of his troubled past as a retired detective.
This movie literally had me on the edge of my chair the whole time. From the thrill of finding out who the killers were to the anticipation of learning how they would maliciously kill their next victim, the plot is definitely the epitome of mystery.
The story also gives a new definition of victims. Typically, victims are average Joes with normal jobs. However, the victims in this film have done their fair share of harming the community, but you can’t help but feel sympathetic toward these not-so-innocent victims. Though thankfully I wasn’t able to connect with the movie through experience, I was able to understand the grief and angst the victims were filled with. The murderers were targeting them simply because they relied on the idea that their heinous crimes would go unreported because of their victims’ crime ridden past. The victims were faced with the double-edged dilemma of reporting the kidnappings and murders and getting indicted themselves or keeping quiet and letting their loved ones’ murders go unsolved.
The plot reminded me of Mel Gibson’s 1996 movie “Ransom.” Both movies feature the conflict of negotiating with the kidnappers over money and loved ones’ lives, keeping the audience scared stiff in suspense, and both also mainly rely on the negotiator’s hope and the kidnapper’s greed to create suspense.
But this movie is different from other thrillers, because Scudder doesn’t work alone or have an experienced partner to help solve the murders; instead, a street-smart homeless kid helps him piece the puzzle together. This movie does a wonderful job of flipping the roles of typical characters. The good guys were the bad guys, the bad guys were the good guys and one of the most knowledgeable characters was an urban youth who was in and out of foster care. Certainly not your typical plot.
If you’re a fan of Neeson’s and enjoyed watching him in “Taken,” then “A Walk Among the Tombstones” is certainly for you as its story is similar. Neeson’s character again uses his keen detecting skills, pain-causing fighting techniques and the emotional connection he shares with his victims to help solve crimes. Neeson himself is so convincing in his films that it’s easy to assume that this is how he really is in real life. His strong voice, passionate acting and stoic demeanor make it clear that this isn’t a guy you’d want to mess with on or off screen.
Though this movie seems like a typical cat-and-mouse chase, there is a significant emotional connection between the victims, drug users and their haunting pasts that brings this suspenseful story all together. Scudder and an unlikely team collectively come together to help bring the victims justice regardless of their considerably different backgrounds. This movie certainly doesn’t have the average heroic group, but it just goes to show that heroism comes in many forms.
“A Walk Among the Tombstones” is definitely a go-see thriller that will leave you wondering what’s among those tombstones.
