A Most Violent Year

Director: J.C. Chandor
Cast: Oscar Isaac, Jessica Chastain, Albert Brooks, David Oyelowo
Length: 125 minutes
Country: USA

The wintry landscape of New York in the 1980s forms the backdrop of this all-American drama, which centres around the difficulties in establishing a clean business in a crime-ridden town. In this case it’s an oil company run by entrepreneur Abel Morales (Oscar Isaac) who, with the help of his attorney Andrew (Albert Brooks) and wife Anna (Jessica Chastain), strikes a deal with a group of Jewish Chassidem, which will give him access to a valued oil terminal on the East River.

The problem is, though, that their oil trucks are regularly being hijacked and stolen by criminals, not to mention the investigation of their company by a persistent District Attorney (David Oyelowo). With only thirty days to gather the money required to save the deal – and therefore the business – Morales must do everything he can while still remaining true to his morality and the law.

If that sounds dull I wouldn’t worry about it too much. Director J.C. Chandor has made a career out of making films with potentially mind-numbingly boring subject matter; Margin Call was a film about bankers talking about the stock exchange, while All Is Lost was a dialogue-free 105 minutes about a guy on a boat. But both were extraordinarily compelling experiences, glossily professional yet bursting from the seams with substance, and A Most Violent Year is no exception. It’s a smart and tough piece, evocative of its period without ever descending into pastiche, and it treats its audience with a respect lacking in many other films of its type.

The dialogue crackles with danger even though there’s no actual threat here – this isn’t Scorsese, a conversation won’t end in a shootout, but it’s to Chandor’s credit that these scenes just as exciting.

While there are some action sequences, such as an effectively tense car chase through the gutters of the city, it’s a film where the real drama happens behind closed doors, in meetings at restaurants or dim offices, where powerful men attempt to curry valuable political favour among each other. The dialogue crackles with danger even though there’s no actual threat here – this isn’t Scorsese, a conversation won’t end in a shootout, but it’s to Chandor’s credit that these scenes just as exciting.

Having said that, I do feel it’s his weakest film so far. At times it feels like a very high-budget television production, the kind you’d find on BBC2 at 9PM on a Sunday. It’s not necessarily an insult – some of the smartest stuff airs on television nowadays – but you can’t but wonder if it’s really making the best use of its cinematic medium. Although it should be said that the drama is elevated by its performances. Oscar Isaac is on fire right now, clearly making the most of his thoroughly-due recognition from Inside Llewyn Davis, and he plays the lead with a complicated sensitivity (it might be his most likeable role yet). Jessica Chastain is arguably even better, playing a tough-as-nails woman who feels she has been unfairly side-lined, and tries to exert a powerful presence anyway. It’s a shame she doesn’t have more screen time – the scenes between her and Isaac, where she chastises him for being unable to step up and defend their family, are thoroughly captivating.

In the end it’s a film worth seeing. It ruminates effectively on the cost of achieving (that dreaded phrase) “the American Dream”, which still seems relevant today – in many ways it’s a period companion piece to the neoliberal Margin Call, and its powerful climax certainly brings to the forefront the theme that a rapidly-growing, ruthless business creates as many victims as it does victors. But as I left the cinema I couldn’t help but wonder if A Most Violent Year was a touch too slight to justify the price of the ticket.

Image Source: Icon Films UK