“A Most Violent Year” is Oscar-nominated writer/director J.C. Chandor’s follow-up to last year’s Robert Redford “I’m alone in the middle of the ocean and I’m barely going to talk” drama “All Is Lost”. With “A Most Violent Year”, Chandor has paired-up Oscar Isaac (“Inside Llewyn Davis”) and Jessica Chastain for an intriguing crime drama.
The setting is 1981 New York City. Isaac plays Abel Morales, the successful owner of the Standard Oil Heating, which services the five boroughs of NY. The company is being targeted by hijackers, who are beating-up drivers and stealing trucks so they can take the valuable oil and sell it. Morales is frustrated by the crimes, and is getting no help from the city. In fact, the District Attorney’s office has been investigating Morales and Standard for some time, and may soon to filing charges. Morales, his wife Anna (Chastain) and their two daughters have just moved into a very new home, but they don’t even feel safe there. He believes the other oil companies in the area trying to drive him out.
At the same time, Morales has a business deal in the works and 30 days to get the money he needs to close it, and not take a huge financial loss. But in order for this to happen and 1981 to not become what he calls “a bad year”, he needs to smooth-out his situation with his enemies, including the D.A., so that the bank will approve his loan. But that’s easier said than done, and as this narrative continues and the plot expands, the number of obstacles in Abel’s way increases, and we learn more things about Morales that make us wonder if he’s actually the man we think he is.
The pacing of “A Most Violent Year” starts out slow, but builds nicely, and by the second half (amidst perfect tone and atmosphere) you have been drawn into an old-fashioned thriller that, if made using current Hollywood standards, would feature shootouts, loads of blood and graphic killings. With what may one of the year’s most contradictory titles, “A Most Violent Year” doesn’t rely on violence to tell this tale and generate suspense. Instead, we are carried along by well written characters and situations, led by a protagonist couple trying to keep it together while under a remarkable amount of pressure during this unique place and time.
Isaac is quite believable as a minority businessman who’s fought hard for his piece of the American Dream, which may soon become a nightmare. He does a nice job portraying Morales as a guy trying to stay calm, but who could explode at any minute. Chastain, though she doesn’t have as much screen time, is even more of a commanding presence. In one tension-packed scene, it’s Anna who takes control when the couple hits a deer with their car on the way home from a restaurant. Chastain display a silent, scary stare at one point that immediately got me thinking that she could make a great on-screen villain. And this scene comes just moments after she displays true outrage upon discovering their youngest daughter playing with a loaded gun she found on their front yard. At times her emotions are a bit over-exaggerate, but overall it’s standout work.
Albert Brooks is underused but nicely cast as Abel’s attorney, while David Oyelowo (Martin Luther King, Jr. in “Selma”) gives a no-nonsense performance as the District Attorney.
On The Official LCJ Report Card, “A Most Violent Year” gets a B. It falls short for consideration as one of the best films of the year, but since this is 2014’s final major release, it’s provides a worthy conclusion to “A Most Excellent Year” at the movies.