The world is a dark and tiring place

  Liam Neeson as Matt Scudder in a scene from "A Walk Among the Tombstones."  © 2014 Universal Studios. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Painted along the edges of “A Walk Among the Tombstones” is the urgent reminder the end of the world is nigh. That was life in 1999 in the months leading toward the current millennium – a period loaded with paranoia about how humanity will end because of the Y2K virus once Dec. 31, 1999 became Jan. 1, 2000. 

Seriously, Time?

Amid the panic and newspapers headlines heralding the dawning of dread and destruction portrayed in the film is a moment when one character reads one of the hyperbolic headlines and mutters, “People are afraid of all the wrong things.” What makes that line so intentionally effective is how it reveals “A Walk Among the Tombstones’” true intentions. It's not the big catastrophes that are worthy of fear; rather, it's the people flittering about your periphery who should invoke your terror, as you can never know what they can do to you. Or, more importantly, what they can force you to do.

It's worth emphasizing “A Walk Among the Tombstones” is not a Liam Neeson revenge flick, despite an opening sequence that has the human embodiment of lurching despair paired with two shots, a gun, and three armed robbers to shoot. All that action occurs in a flashback eight years prior to the events of 1999, when Neeson's Matt Scudder, now a private detective and recovering alcoholic, is asked by a drug dealer (Dan Stevens) to investigate the kidnapping and murder of his wife.

Neeson discovers the brutal death was the most recent in a spree in which the killers hold the wife of a drug dealer hostage, collect a ransom and then kill her anyway. It's a dark world Neeson has stumbled into, and all he has to help him are his wits, a homeless teenage assistant who references fictional private eyes (Brian Bailey), and a pressing desire to do the right thing. The lattermost attribute pushes Neeson toward a confrontation with the two killers (David Harbour and Adam David Thompson), an encounter he may not come back from alive.

It still may sound like a film befitting Neeson's recent ouevre like “Non-Stop,” but the brooding Irishman is not hyper-violent mode like he is in those (effectively) trashy Luc Besson films. The opening blood splatter in “A Walk Among the Tombstones” instead motivates Neeson to drop the gun and replace it with cunning and conversation – in one scene he defuses a potentially violent confrontation with a threat backed by a haunting glower and his patented gruff. That's all a good shamus like Neeson needs to solve a case no matter how convoluted it is and no matter how many punches he receives for his efforts. 

Good luck laying a good hand on this though.

 That's the primary enjoyment from “A Walk Among the Tombstones,” as watching the weathered Neeson (does any A-lister look as rundown as he does?) attempt to unravel a peculiar and horrifying case is captivating and engaging. His Scudder is not on the same par as other fictional detectives like Sam Spade and Philip Marlowe (they get name dropped by Bailey alongside Daunte Culpepper of all people), but he's a good facsimile and more befitting a world of brutality than the sloppily suave characters played by Humphrey Bogart.

New York City circa 1999 is shown as a rather hopeless place, one in which the presence of the authority is limited to DEA agents of moderate usefulness along with a few whispers of police corruption and competence. Sunlight is blighted by thunderous roars from handguns firing off in the middle of a busy street and men committing acts of wanton cruelty, and the night is flooded by heavy rains and the perpetual threat of murder and death. The only respite comes during overcast days, with the swarming grey blurring happiness and mayhem into a gentle mix of hopeless security.

Yet the danger never really goes away; the illusion of comfort becomes infected by the evil lurking amid the quotidian sights one views while walking a dog or picking up groceries from a shop. In the world of “A Walk Among the Tombstones,” characters should be far more afraid of the TV repairman or the neighborhood plumber than a drug dealer. A drug dealer is, at least, honest in his intentions, while the first hides among the throngs like a wolf in sheep's clothing just waiting for a chance to attack. 

Rating: Four out of Five Stars

Click here to see the trailer.

Rating: R

Run time: 113 minutes

Genre: Mystery

Ask Away

Target audience: Recent Liam Neeson fans expecting another EuropaCorp flick like“Taken,” as well as film noir fans.

Take the whole family?: It's nowhere near as violent as “Expendables 3,” which earned a PG-13 rating, but the content is much darker in tone and more discomfiting. Viewers 15 and up should be OK.

Theater or Netflix?: Not quite worth a full-priced fare, but a nice matinee would work fine.

What about the atmosphere? “A Walk Among the Tombstones” wouldn't work as well as it does without some solid direction and cinematography from Scott Frank and Mihai Malaimare Jr., respectively. The combination of their efforts creates a vibe that bounces between claustrophobic and grandiose isolation that is thoroughly uncomfortable.

Watch this as well?: It’s worth dipping into a couple of the characters referenced in the film in classics like “The Big Sleep” and “The Maltese Falcon” for a primer on the genre. Also watch new spins on the film noir genre like “Brick” or the superb “Out of Sight” to see where modern directors have taken it.

Reason 12 for why the '90s didn't completely suck.