As much as I enjoy films from the gangster genre, from Cagney to Scorsese, it is refreshing to see a film taking place within that same world not resort to usual form. J.C Chandor’s follow up to All Is Lost takes place in 1981 New York, and follows an ambitious immigrant as he struggles to protect his business, without losing his sense of morality in the sea of violence, organized crime and corruption that surrounds him.
1981 saw more armed robberies in New York than any other year in recorded history, as well as 2,100 murders. These included the famous Shamrock Bar murders, which eventually led to the arrest of 127 suspected Mafia associates in 2011. 1981 also saw the beginning of The Great Mafia War, which raged for the next two years claiming countless lives, including twelve murders, in twelve separate occasions in November 1982. Not since the 1920s and 30s had so much blood been spilt in America as a result of organized crime.
As Abel Morales, the head of a gas shipping company, Oscar Isaac shows impressive reserve and some of the quiet subtleties that make for a great performance. He continues to impress since his lead in Inside Llewyn Davis, with his performance here restrained, yet brimming with the potential for ferocity, rightly earning comparison with Al Pacino’s turn in The Godfather. His descent towards violence is far from heavy-handed or signposted, more guided out of absolute necessity and what he sees as his duty to protect his family and his business.
His wife Anna, impressively played by an excellent Jessica Chastain, cuts a Lady Macbeth–esque figure, constantly forcing him towards a path he refuses to be led down. Her own Mob connections are affirmed, both explicitly and implicitly, as her every action, from owning a gun to questioning Abel’s ability to protect his own children eats away at his pride. Perhaps the most enjoyable aspect of the film comes with her role as the driving force behind Abel’s move away from legitimacy, serving as perhaps the only (in my memory at least) example of an on-screen wife of an organized crime figure who isn’t constantly hemming and hawing at her husband to leave the life, or fretting about the children. She is obsessed, focused, loyal and ruthless, a far cry from Anne Heche in Donnie Brasco or Lorraine Bracco in Goodfellas.
A Most Violent Year was a pleasant surprise as a character study of a man’s steady descent away from legitimacy. It is perfectly paced, and unfolds in a beautifully measured and patient way. It doesn’t come with the usual bursts of violence and dark humour that usually follow the gangster genre, but offers a much more accomplished and mature insight into that style of life.
A Most Violent Year will be showing at Broadway Cinema until Thursday 29 January 2015, as well as at other Nottingham cinemas.
A Most Violent Year Official Site
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