“A Most Violent Year” takes an ambitious step back in time to when guns solved everything.
Directed by J.C. Candor and released on Friday with A24 Studios, “A Most Violent Year” has every tool to obtain mob-movie greatness: blood, a mischievous, beautiful wife, tax fraud and drawn-out pauses in between far-fetched monologues.
Unfortunately, the film struggles with an attempt to be a classic gangster movie.
Progressing oil tycoon Abel Morales, played by Golden Globe nominee Oscar Isaac, begins a string of bad luck in 1981 when he is told another one of his truck drivers was assaulted during an oil delivery.
Unwilling to solve the ongoing problem by arming his drivers with handguns, Morales puts his energy towards landing a deal on a new oil terminal that would give him better access to the East River.
As soon as he puts down the deposit for the lot, Abel is met with federal charges against his business by Assistant District Attorney Lawrence, played by Golden Globe nominee David Oyelowo.
The audience is then left to impatiently wait for an upside to Abel’s downward spiral.
With all of its twists and turns, the film lacks momentum.
Oscar Isaac’s lackluster performance is a sad excuse as a main role cast. His dead eyes could compete for a spot in Hollywood’s hall of bland acting alongside Tobey Maguire’s portrayal of Spiderman and Keanu Reeves in just about every film he’s been in.
The film runs just under two hours. The unnecessary amount of lengthy gun-and-blood scenes drags on as eyes roll into sleep mode and iPhones drop to the sticky theater floor.
In one scene, Abel and his wife Anna, played by Academy Award nominee Jessica Chastain, are in their kitchen screaming at each other, and in the next scene, the shot slowly slides to show Abel in an empty parking lot waiting for another lawyer to tell him even more bad news.
Chastain saves Isaac’s performance with her supportive role. Early on in “A Most Violent Year,” the audience can clearly tell which spouse has more backbone than the other when they see Anna pull out a handgun to shoot a dying deer on the side of a road; Chastain stunningly nails the part of tough wife and sneaky business partner.
Supporting actors Albert Brooks, who plays Abel’s right hand man and attorney, and Academy Award winner Catalina Sandino Marino do nothing special to heighten the film’s reliability.
Visually, “A Most Violent Year” is beautiful. Cinematographer Bradford Young, who has won two cinematography awards at the Sundance Film Festival in 2011 and 2013, uses light to manipulate the entire melancholy, dark tone of the film.
Produced by lead singer and songwriter Albert Ebert of folk band Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros, the music does little to keep any tempo throughout the film.
“A Most Violent Year” had great potential to be a riveting crime drama that would have cut through the ridiculous amount of biopic releases this year.
But its lack of suspense, its weak lead character and the boring script will push “A Most Violent Year” into the back corners of the audience’s memory.
Rating: 3/5 stars