A Walk Among the Tombstones
Now playing at International Village
Liam Neeson’s particular set of skills are now so legendary that last week comedian Seth Meyers called for the actor to step up in the war on terror: "This week President Obama will announce his plans for addressing the threat posed by ISIS extremists in Iraq… at this point he should just tell Liam Neeson that they have his daughter."
The actor is still kicking butt into his 60s, a relatively new film concept that plays well for the baby-boomer crowd and has been a surprise hit with that younger, key demographic, too. And why not? Sylvester Stallone is 68. Harrison Ford is 72. But it was Neeson and 2009’s Taken that paved the way for the type of elder-statesman action hero we see on screens today.
This is not Taken 3, however (that film is slated for a 2015 release). Similarities abound -- a kidnapping, an ex-lawman -- but the tone and pacing of director Scott Frank’s film is fairly different. There are long, ponderous-yet-artful shots of a seedy New York City in the ’90s; our hero would rather avoid violence than invite it; and Taken fans might be impatient for the action to start while filmmakers take their time letting the dread set in. Â
Based on Lawrence Block’s bestselling series of mystery novels, the film stars Neeson as Matt Scudder, a disgraced NYPD cop who moonlights as a private investigator. A heroin trafficker (Dan Stevens) whose wife has been kidnapped and gruesomely murdered enlists Scudder’s help in tracking down those responsible, and in the process Scudder realizes he has a sadistic serial killer on his hands.Â
The mystery is set in 1999, before cellphones ruined everything, and under the panic of impendingY2K mayhem. The threat of companies and entire power grids going dark seems quaint now, but it is a very real fear in Frank’s colourless, soulless New York. “People are afraid of all the wrong things,” the killer observes.
The sexualized violence in the film -- at the hand of two psychopaths posing as DEA agents (David Harbour and Adam David Thompson) -- can be hard to take, though much of it is implied rather than seen. Women are objects and victims, and the weighty nature of the crimes is jarring in what is otherwise a straight-forward cop thriller. Providing respite from the violence is the streetwise teen (Brian “Astro” Bradley) Scudder reluctantly turns to for help; it’s the first real relationship he’s had in years.
Neeson’s mug is ideally suited to convey hangdog dejection and deep regret. That lined face, those sad eyes, and a pasty complexion that suggests a lot of time spent sitting at the bar. The fact that Scudder is perpetually on the verge of breaking his fragile sobriety adds an extra element of suspense, and late in the film the 12-step program is integrated into the plot. Â
Last week Neeson called for stricter gun control in the U.S., calling the situation stateside “crazy,” and the gun-control message is also woven somewhat unsubtly into the story. Hard to take the moral high ground, however, when it’s a gun that ultimately saves our hero.Â
