180183151
Anyone expecting abundant violence in “A Most Violent Year” should know outright that this crime drama’s title isn’t exactly referencing its content, but rather the year it takes place, 1981 — statistically one of the most violent in New York City’s history. Few films need blood to be exciting, but after sitting through this failed, if handsome, exercise in minimalism, which tempers its drama to the point that it’s nearly undetectable, one may very well feel like the victim of a bait and switch.
Certainly, no one could accuse writer-director J.C. Chandor of being one-note. At this point, his three feature films — the others being “Margin Call” and “All Is Lost” — are starkly different in setting and subject matter, with characters of varying ages and degrees of power. But if there’s a constant in Chandor’s work, it’s that he can never quite stir up the excitement in scenes he insists on keeping at such a slow boil, be they in a brokerage firm, a busted yacht, or, as seen here, the underhanded world of a heating-oil turf war.
Some of our finest directors, like Tomas Alfredson (“Let the Right One In”), exhibit a priceless knack for curbing moments of action or terror, so when they come, it’s a stirring jolt to one’s tightly-wound system. This is very much what Chandor attempts in “A Most Violent Year,” a mafia-tinged slog about an ambitious immigrant (Oscar Isaac) and his pseudo mob moll of a wife (Jessica Chastain), but the transparency of his forced turning of the gears, and the relative fruitlessness that turning yields, are ultimately hard to forgive.
This amounts to an extreme disservice to the immaculate cast, which also includes Albert Brooks as an aging lawyer and David Oyelowo as a detective investigating the oil world’s shady dealings. Actors are left to strut about amid Chandor’s pulseless crack at an American Dream commentary, and this is most tragic when considering Chastain, whose every scene feels like it’s on the verge of being a showstopper. There’s nothing wrong with tugging the reins in a drama, but Chandor’s efforts make “A Most Boring Year” seem a more apt title.
A Most Violent Year
R
One-and-a-half reels out of four
Coming soon to the Ritz East
Recommended Rental
Gone Girl
R
Available Tuesday
Based on the beloved bestseller by Gillian Flynn, David Fincher’s “Gone Girl” ultimately makes the wrong kind of feminist statement (namely, that women must fight against men for empowerment), but that doesn’t change the movie’s wild, sinful watchability. Rosamund Pike is superb as the titular gal who goes missing, and also incites a maze of twists that often point the finger at her suspicious husband, solidly played by Ben Affleck.
Contact the South Philly Review at editor@southphillyreview.com.
180183151
180182991
