Renting at the Reels: Thrills in all the right places

By: Kaitlyn McKay, Columnist

In “A Walk Among the Tombstones,” Matthew Scudder (Liam Neeson) is an ex-cop who now works as an unlicensed detective while recovering from alcoholism. When Matt is approached by a drug dealer, Kenny (Dan Stevens), and asked to find the men that kidnapped and brutally murdered his wife, he initially refuses, but accepts when he is told a horrifying detail of her death. Matt eventually discovers that the men who killed Kenny’s wife have killed other women before, and all of them have been connected to other drug dealers in some way. The race to stop the men increases drastically when their next victim is a young girl, the daughter of another drug dealer.

“Tombstones” is surprisingly not very graphic for a violent movie. The horrifying violence is implied, but just bloody enough to get across how dangerous the criminals are. It’s a strange compliment to give a movie that features women being mutilated, but the way the violence is handled is strangely refreshing when movies can be so aggressive today when showing brutality.

 

One of the more unexpected decisions is that the identity of the murderers isn’t a mystery: There are scenes where the murderers’ faces are clearly shown before they ever meet Matt. There is no mystery as to who they are or why they are killing women, the reason we are given is simple: They are insane. There’s nothing else to know, because all that matters is that they are killing women and need to be stopped.

 

The movie’s a drama-thriller, but can be hard to sit through for those that need their movies to constantly have action. It’s a little slow, as it’s more than halfway through the movie until time is truly ticking as the men kidnap the young girl mentioned in the summary.

 

“A Walk Among the Tombstones” is just an OK film. It’s not generic, as it does keep a fair amount of suspense, but there’s nothing to truly separate it from other films of the same genre.

 

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