Director: Scott Frank; Screenwriter: Scott Frank; Starring: Liam Neeson, Dan Stevens, Ruth Wilson, Boyd Holbrook; Running time: 114 mins; Certificate: 15

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A man walks into a bar... behind him follow gun-toting thugs, sparking a shootout that spills into the street. It's a grand entrance for Liam Neeson as Matt Scudder, the creation of novelist Lawrence Block, who leaves the NYPD and quits the booze after going 'Wild West' in the city. Sure, the film is littered with clichés, but a towering performance from Neeson and some delicate artistry from writer-turned-director Scott Frank (screenwriter of Out of Sight and Minority Report) lifts it above bog standard.

Even the opening credits are well-considered, with Neeson framed from below as he descends a flight of steps to finish off one of the gunmen. It's a subtle echo of the cop movies that were playing in the '70s when Block first put pen to paper on the long-running Scudder series, but this story is set on the eve of the millennium when the good citizens of New York were in a flap over Y2K. Ex-Downton Abbey star Dan Stevens has graver concerns (dirtying up his image with this and The Guest). Here, he plays Kenny Kristo, a drug dealer whose wife is kidnapped, paid for and promptly returned to him in a stack of neatly bound polythene packs.


Given the nature of his work and his aim to kill those responsible, Kristo turns to Scudder for a point in the right direction. Like every noir anti-hero, Scudder lives by his own code of ethics, but at this point he is trying to play by society's rules, going to AA meetings and even feeding the homeless – specifically, a kid called TJ, played with attitude by US X Factor contestant Astro (bringing occasional light relief). Only when Scudder links the case to another rape/murder does he realise this is more than a beef between dealers and when a little girl is targeted, there's no holding him back.

While there are shades of Neeson's avenging angel in the Taken franchise, this is a different, more challenging proposition for the actor. He must go about his business quietly (having already learned that lesson) and there is none of the hyperkinetic action that serves to thrill in the series hatched by Luc Besson. Inevitably, blood is shed and it flows like a river at the end, but rather than blasting the senses with violence, Frank creates a stifling atmosphere of dread. You're kept wondering how far the bad guys might go, but, more intriguingly, where Scudder will draw the line in hunting them down.


While there are shades of Neeson's avenging angel in the Taken franchise, this is a different, more challenging proposition for the actor.

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Of course putting women and especially children in peril is a fast route to justifying the means, and Frank could have delved deeper into that moral ambiguity (for Kristo as well). But, the most effective shortcut is in his choice of leading man. Neeson commands the screen like John Wayne used to, except that Neeson is a far better actor with a humble quality that pervades every scene in a fascinating way, counterbalancing his physical presence to give a real sense of a man who is, spiritually, on his knees. It's because of that, you would follow this man through the gates of hell.

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