A MOST VIOLENT YEAR

Starring: Oscar Isaac, Jessica Chastain, David Oyelowo

Writer: J.C. Chandor

Director: J.C. Chandor

New York City, 1981. A year that, statistically, was one of the worst years in the city's history in terms of violent crime. Against this backdrop, ambitious businessman Abel Morales (Isaac) attempts to expand his heating oil business in a cut-throat market. He's trying to play by the rules but his competitors aren't exactly playing fair, his drivers are being attacked, his trucks are being hijacked and an equally ambitious D.A. (Oyelowo) is looking to make a name for himself by bringing potentially business-destroying legal proceedings against Morales.

Despite the title, this film isn't awash with violence and is all the better for it. There are umpteen opportunities for the plot to descend into sub-Goodfellas nonsense but the restraint shown by writer/director Chandor is admirable and so when the violence actually does happen it's all the more powerful and shocking. The performances are, as you'd hope with this cast, all terrific. Oscar Isaac is an incredibly versatile and watchable actor, putting in a much more controlled turn here than his showier recent role in Ex Machina but still carrying an air of power and presence. Jessica Chastain is great as Abel's formidable wife, as is Albert Brooks as the Morales' somewhat world-weary, seen-it-all lawyer and Oyelowo as the smart, politically-motivated D.A. The tension builds very well and there's a genuine air of menace hanging over the proceedings. So why didn't it work as well as I hoped it would?

My main issue is that the film's pace is so glacially slow that fatigue sets in during the second half. Also, the plot resolved itself rather too neatly for my liking. After piling on problem after problem for its main character, my reaction to the denouement was "Well, that was all a bit convenient". Don't get me wrong, it doesn't stretch credibility to breaking point but I would have preferred things to have been messier, to have more things left unanswered. I was expecting no easy way out of the moral maze Abel found himself trapped in (if indeed there was a way out at all), so I was disappointed to find that someone had chainsawed a crafty path through the hedgerows and plonked down a big, flashing neon arrow pointing to the exit.

It's an interesting, well-acted but ultimately flawed movie that I feel doesn't fully reward the patience of its audience. A shame, really.