MOVIE REVIEW: A Most Violent Year

Published May 22, 2015

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A MOST VIOLENT YEAR

DIRECTOR: JC Chandler

CAST: Oscar Isaacs, Jessica Chastain, David Oyelowu, Elyes Gabel

CLASSIFICATION: 16 LV

RUNNING TIME: 124 minutes

RATING: ****

While the title may suggest violence and mayhem, this film is actually a character drama and a stylish one at that. It is a restrained story that meticulously unpacks its characters and shows rather than tells.

Set during the winter of 1981, statistically one of the most crime-ridden in New York City’s history, this is the story of one immigrant businessman’s attempt to stay true to himself as he chases his business goals.

Abel (Isaacs) runs a succesful heating oil business and is in the throes of purchasing river-side land to expand exponentially. The entire heating oil business is being investigated so his every move is being scrutinised, but he is determined to do business legally.

When his truck drivers are targeted by hijackers, he insists that no one arms themselves, even defying the union bosses on this score. One driver in particular, ambitious but not very brave Julian (Gabel), gives us a glimpse into the vulnerability of the small man trying to act out his boss’ wishes.

The violence of the title is implied and this is not your usual gangsta flick of people running around with cocked guns pointed sideways. The menace is in the air, but it also pervades the offices and homes and comes courtesy of men in suits and uniforms, like DA Lawrence (Oyelowu), who wants to make his bones on this case, albeit in the legal world and not the one of guns.

Abel’s wife, Anna (Chastain), wants to bring her dad and his family into the fight – and the inference is she comes from an old-school Brooklyn gangster family – but he insists this will not be their way.

She is the business bookkeeper and her insistence on rechecking their files when DA Lawrence comes after them is suspicious. But, we really get to see her in a new light one snowy night when the couple are driving home and Abel hits a deer.

Chastain delivers a performance driven by an anarchic and slightly morally dubious tendency just under the surface, while Alessandro Nivola is a wonderfully contradicting study of a man totally aware of how he is compromising his morals, but doing it nonetheless as Abel’s friend Peter Fiorente, who is a true mobster’s son.

Isaacs delivers a composed performance, assured and focused as a decent man trying to follow the right path.

Abel remains clear about his purpose even as his path becomes more and more indistinct and the pressure mounts. This path takes him to some dark places indeed – and it turns out his friends are not as high-minded as he is.

The look of the film references 1980s street photography with an old creamy-yellow tone and Bradford Young’s cinematography highlights the urban decay of the city the main character is always running through (he is a keen jogger). This lone figure moving through the desolate abandoned buildings helps to set up Abel in opposition to his surroundings and this image is repeated in many ways throughout the film.

Always sharply dressed and polite to everyone, he stands out and above.

But, the question here is whether Abel can achieve his goal of expansion without compromising his high moral ground. And the film, in the bigger scheme of things, asks the same question of people chasing the American Dream.

If you liked Margin Call, you will like this.

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