September 24, 2014 -- The trailers for this movie looked interesting, so I decided to see it, despite less than stellar reviews. I was half afraid this was going to be like “Seven” with a killer so fiendishly clever he cooks up a plot so complicated, with so many unforeseeable variables, it would never work in the real world. But no, it turns out this movie, adapted from Lawrence Block’s novel, is believable. This is the sort of crime and the kind of crime-solving that could actually happen.

Liam Neeson (“Taken”) plays Matt Scudder a world-weary ex-cop who makes a living as an off-the-books unlicensed detective for hire. He is approached by a fellow member of his Alcoholics Anonymous group, Peter Kristo (Boyd Holbrook of “The Host”) who has a brother, Danny (Dan Stevens of “The Fifth Estate”) who wants to hire Scudder to find out who murdered his wife. When Scudder finds out Danny is a drug dealer, he turns him down, but Danny finally convinces him to take the case. Scudder soon realizes this killer has killed before and will probably kill again.

During his investigation, Scudder discovers two or three men are involved in a series of killings in which the wives or daughters of drug dealers are targeted. The women are kidnapped, held for ransom and then brutally killed, whether or not the ransom is paid. This is a lucrative business, since the drug dealers have a lot of cash and they don't want to get the police involved in their business. The motives of the killers, however, go well beyond money. They enjoy killing and torturing people. These killers are monsters.

This is a film with extremely dark content. There is murder. There is torture, both physical and psychological. Bodies are dismembered. The relatives of the dead, even though they are evil, are treated with exceptional cruelty by the murderers. This brings up the obvious point that it is very risky to target drug dealers, some of whom are dangerous people with dangerous friends. Do the killers have death wish? Maybe so. They definitely are sick.

On the less dark side, there is a nice relationship between Scudder and a wannabe detective, TJ (Astro of “Earth to Echo”) a young boy with sickle cell anemia. TJ starts hanging around, following Scudder and helping him with research on the case. Scudder tries to keep the boy out of harm's way, but he's very persistent. This relationship is the only light, warm element in an otherwise dark and cold movie.

In a way, this is a throwback to the old Raymond Chandler-type detective stories where the tough-as-nails, street wise detective reigns supreme. This is modern, gritty, film noir storytelling. The world is utterly corrupt in this story, except for the detective with his own code of honor. Scudder is a man comfortable in all levels of society, from the well-heeled top to the muck at the bottom. He's a modern knight-errant, a ronin who is sufficient unto himself, and a match for any bad guys who dare stand against him. Neeson is perfect in this role. This film rates a B.

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