On A Walk Amongst the Tombstones

Liam Neeson doing action has become a cinematic tradition and A Walk Amongst the Tombstones appeared to be 2014’s offering. However, Tombstones is more than actor and image suggest. Less action, more slow burning thriller and this is hopefully a sign of things to come. It would be hoped that audiences are now tiring of seeing sole protagonists taking out groups of thugs single-handed. It’s implausible at the best of times, but even more so when the film aims for realism.

Back to Tombstone and the film, with its dark subject matter and grey mise-en-scene feels heavily indebted to True Detective (2014), perhaps the best thing to appear on TV since The Sopranos (1999 – 2007). It’s a pessimistic film, with very brief glimpses of humour, much like the TV show. Thematically, the film covers child killings and perversion, again much like the TV show. Yet Tombstone’s source material, the Lawrence Block book from the Matt Scudder series, predates True Detective being first published in 1993. Despite this it is hard to believe that director Scott Frank has not attempted to mirror the bleak style of True Detective that reflects the uncomfortable subject matter. Even elements of the casting, especially the ‘bad’ guys feel like a nod in the direction of the actors from the HBO success.

Tombstone is a restrained film that could do with a little more aggression. It threatens at several times to kick to life, but never quite does, leaving the film feeling anticlimactic. However, it does enough to make a sequel for the private detective not wholly unwelcome.