A Walk Among the Tombstones (2014) * * 1/2

Directed by:  Scott Frank

Starring:  Liam Neeson, Dan Stevens, David Harbour, Brian Bradley

Matt Scudder (Neeson) is an ex-cop and recovering alcoholic who hires himself out as "an unlicensed private eye."   He tells a prospective client, "I do favors for people and they give me gifts."   This client is a wealthy drug dealer whose wife was kidnapped and then killed even though the dealer paid the ransom.    Scudder knows he is dealing with a special breed of sicko and agrees to investigate.     This line of work is not the best way for Scudder to temper his demons, but we sense he takes these jobs as penance for accidentally shooting a child dead during a shootout.  

A Walk Among the Tombstones is not wall-to-wall fistfights, chases, and shootouts (at first).    It patiently allows Scudder to do the detective work and discover the true nature of the monsters he is trailing.     Then it plateaus and never recovers about midway through.    It hedges its bets and gives us the ending we would expect in a film these days starring Liam Neeson.     He starts out as Matt Scudder and ends up as Bryan Mills.    Tombstones covers some of the same territory as Joel Schumacher's splendid 8MM (1999), but does not have the courage to go all the way like 8MM did.   Pity.

Neeson, of course, is an imposing physical presence who has made a career lately out of playing wounded characters who still have a shot at redemption.    Oh, and yes he looks at right at home carrying a gun.     He can play characters with tortured souls with the best of them.     He also creates a touching friendship with a homeless teen (Bradley), who sleeps in libraries and becomes Scudder's partner and ostensibly the son he never had.     In the grand scheme of Tombstones, the teen isn't really necessary.     He becomes one more character you have to keep track of, although at least he does not become a target of the villains that Scudder must rescue.

The characters here are given different dimensions which is an interesting choice.    The drug dealer (Stevens) is seen as refined, even civilized and not altogether unredeemable.    He would have turned out okay if it weren't for the profession he chose.    The kidnappers are monsters driven by uncontrollable desires that we can not fathom having.     Tombstones is not afraid to lead us down this terrifying path, until it suddenly is.   

Tombstones becomes a film with brilliant parts that don't add up to a satisfying whole.    It is like closing your hand on something but just coming up with air.    Things reach a resolution and an ending that may satisfy some people.     Maybe because Liam Nesson is the star, audiences expect a certain type of ending and we know whatever issues Neeson is having won't prevent him from kicking ass.    It's all kind of a letdown.