A Most Violent Year
is another one of those films that got rave reviews toward the end of last
year, and yet was completely snubbed by the Oscars, and though the film
eventually came to a theater near me, I didn’t feel any particular urgency to
see it since my plate was full with Oscar shenanigans. However, I was curious, mostly because of the
film’s star, Oscar Isaac, who also starred in my favorite film of 2013, Inside Llewyn Davis. Normally I don’t let myself get drawn in
solely by the actors at play, but Isaac, in this humble critic’s opinion, is
one of the most overlooked actors in popular culture, even if his roles are
often the subject of critical acclaim.
And he performs quite admirably in A
Most Violent Year along with always welcome co-stars Jessica Chastain and David
Oyelowo.
The story is somewhat complicated, so bear with me. Isaac plays Abel Morales, the owner of an up
and coming oil and heating company in 1981, who through honesty and hard work
is trying to work his way into the New York City market. His next step is to purchase a fuel oil
terminal, and he puts down a sizeable down payment for the property while he
waits for his bank to come through on the remaining loaned amount. Meanwhile, oil trucks throughout New York are
getting hijacked at gunpoint, yet Abel refuses to allow his drivers to carry
weapons because he is under scrutiny by a prosecutor (David Oyelowo) looking to
go after the corruption in the home heating industry. When one of his drivers ends up in a gunfight
on the highway, no bank will loan Abel or his business the funds necessary to
close the land deal, so he must gradually compromise his own morality in order
to compile the $1.5 million he needs to make his business succeed.
Complex plotting aside, this film feels a lot like The Godfather in how it takes a man with
good intentions and gradually reduces him to a product of his environment, and
then ultimately the master of it. Acting
as Abel’s foil is his wife Anna (Jessica Chastain), who sees from the start the
underhanded and necessary steps he needs to take in order to not lose
everything. Abel’s constant struggle is
in maintaining his dignity and moral superiority, which paradoxically means
ignoring his self-excused indiscretions while preventing himself from stooping
to the levels of vicious depravity that his wife advocates. It’s an intriguing dynamic that muddies the
waters of good and evil by making the steps to evil gradual and yet ever
looming.
However, if the film has one flaw, it is because it can at
times be something that The Godfather
never was: very dull. Despite the great
performances and plotting, the film’s subject matter often leaves something to
be desired. Let’s face it, the oil and
heating business is not a particularly sexy or intriguing subject matter,
especially when the film’s largest thematic reference point is a film about the
fucking mafia. Sure, the film
occasionally diverts to a gunfight or a chase scene, but these moments are
fleeting and, while thematically significant, overshadowed by a majority of scenes
where men sit in rooms discussing sums of money. I did not truly become invested in the film
until I figured out where it was going, and for the majority of the film’s
first act I was trying my best to play catch-up as I zoned out from boring
conversation to conversation.
That said, though, I found A Most Violent Year to be an overall good film. The summary I provided a couple paragraphs
ago should act as a decent primer to get a dedicated viewer through the film’s
opening half hour, and I promise that there is plenty else to enjoy in this
tale of a moral slippery slope.
So who do you think is one of the most underappreciated
actors working today? Let me know in the
comments below.
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