If you were flipping through the channels and came across “A Most Violent Year,” you’d be forgiven for initially thinking it was a film from the 1970s, indebted as it is to the deliberate, somber drama and muted visual palates of the first two “Godfather” films, among others. The year is 1981, statistically the worst year in crime experienced by New York City at that point in history, but the emphasis on codes of honor and the maintenance of a business amid changing times, among other themes, are essentially timeless, not unlike Francis Ford Coppola’s family gangster epics.
A key difference here, then, is that the protagonist of “A Most Violent Year” is not a gangster, or a violent man. Quite the opposite. Abel Morales (Oscar Isaac) wants very much to conduct his business – the transportation and sale of fuel – in a legal, ethical, moral manner. “Take some pride in what you do,” he tells a group of his competitors in a key scene. Abel abhors violence, knowing its cyclical nature, but now that an unknown adversary has taken to hijacking his vehicles, stealing his goods and terrorizing his drivers, Abel is less and less capable of succeeding while also doing the right thing.
Add to the mix the fact that, in the film’s opening scenes, Abel has just handed over the majority of his life savings as the down payment to a key piece of property for the long-term success of his business, with 30 days to secure the additional funding before the deal expires and the down payment is lost. Abel’s wife, Anna (Jessica Chastain), from whose father he purchased the business, and who may or may not have more up her sleeve than she’s indicated, wants him to meet their offenders on their own turf, but Abel refuses to arm his truck drivers, lest one of them shoot an innocent bystander during a hijacking. Suffice to say, despite his best efforts, events beyond Abel’s control threaten to destroy everything he’s worked for.
For a film that consists largely of people talking, “A Most Violent Year” has all the nail-biting tension of many a more glamorous action picture (especially a brief car-and-foot-chase sequence, completely sans score), but the real suspense comes from Abel’s decisions about what not to do. The screenplay by writer-director J.C. Chandor lays heavily on metaphors and the symbolism with almost biblical intensity – take the main character’s name, for instance – but the excellence of the cast and the coil-like pacing, in which every moment feels like something (or someone) on screen is about to snap, supports it.
Jessica Chastain’s character – influenced by the more aggressive practices of her father, a career gangster – might be the film’s weak link, her actions and beliefs so diametrically opposed to those of her husband that, especially in hindsight, one can’t help but wonder what brought these two individuals together in the first place. Such caveats are minimal, however. This is an excellent drama with marvelous craftsmanship and artistry.
What impresses is the film’s ethical urgency, and while the mere presence of David Oyelowo in the cast (as a district attorney bringing charges against Abel’s company) isn’t sufficient enough to compare “A Most Violent Year” to the superior “Selma” (in which Oyelowo portrayed the late Martin Luther King, Jr.) the two films nonetheless share a sense of being as much about the times in which they take place as they are the times in which they were made. For better or worse, the America that was forged in the early years of the Reagan presidency is still with us today.
“A Most Violent Year” is currently playing in select theaters, and opens at the GoggleWorks Film Theatre on Friday, March 13.
Robert Humanick is a contributing writer for slantmagazine.com. Follow Rob on Twitter @rhumanick
