A MOST VIOLENT YEAR
Director: J.C. Chandor
Writers: J.C. Chandor
Stars: Oscar Isaac, Jessica Chastain, David Oyelowo
Strength: Script, acting and character development
Weakness: Very slow plot development
Runtime: 125 minutes
Rating: 3/5
Plot: In New York City 1981, an ambitious immigrant fights to protect his business and family during the most dangerous year in the city's history.
Review: Oscar Isaac doesn't retrieve a gun from behind a toilet cistern in this tightly coiled crime flick. But his character has so much else in common with The Godfather's Michael Corleone, that you will find it difficult to not think of him as a gangster. Like Pacino's Michael, Isaac's Abel Morales is an ambitious immigrant trying to erase the last traces of criminality from the family business. It's the winter of 1981 and New York is freezing. As he runs a successful heating oil company, the tills should be ringing. But powerful and unknown forces are pushing Morales back to the gun, stealing large amounts of oil from his delivery trucks right off the street. His drivers often get left battered and bleeding in the snow, leading to worries over security. Abel's wife, business partner and mobster's daughter Anna (excellently portrayed by Jessica Chastain) wants to use her family connections to hit back. But with a crunch deal for a new storage facility imminent, Abel is determined to not go back to gangster means to resolve the problem at hand. To make matters worse, the assistant D.A. decides to launch an investigation into the industry. The only issue is the low level of action scenes in the movie – there are good buildups but the audience is always left wanting more. But the director seems interested in lower octane thrills. At its core, this atmospheric film is a study of two steely characters who are trying to keep their hands clean in a very dirty business. It's definitely not for the average audience who is drawn to the film because of the word 'violence' in the title. The story is great and the acting is spectacular, but yes, it can get quite slow at times. But, that does not make it any less great as what it was intended to be - a fascinating character study of an "honorable man" trying to retain his honor in a corrupt business and political environment.
Reviewed by Mohammad Haque
Comments