January
24
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A MOST VIOLENT YEAR (15)
A MOST VIOLENT YEAR (15)
Run time: 125mins
Director: J.C. Chandor
Cast: Oscar Isaac, Jessica Chastain, David Oyelowo, Alessandro Nivolo, Albert Brooks, Elyes Gabel
Synopsis: At a time when New York City is experiencing a spike in criminal activity, heating and oil business owner Abel Morales fights to make himself a living, support his wife Anna and protect his interests. Always looking for a way to expand his business, Abel does things by the book. However, when he becomes the target of opportunistic thieves and a number of his trucks go missing, he takes matters into his own hands to track down those responsible. But, in doing so, he also attracts the attention of the assistant district attorney who has taken an unwelcome interest in Abel’s books…
URL: www.iconmovies.co.uk
This good looking slow burner from writer/director J.C. Chandor (All is Lost 2013, Margin Call 2011) is set in New York City in a year recorded as the most violent on record. Aspirational self- made Hispanic immigrant Abel (Oscar Isaac) is trying to do the right thing for his family and live by the book when he is forced to confront the dark side of the American dream. As played by the chameleon-like Isaac (Ex-Machina 2014, The Two Faces of January 2014, Inside Llewyn Davis 2013) Morales finds his brand of integrity and rigid moral code sorely tested.
When his planned acquisition of a valuable stretch of Brooklyn waterfront to expand his heating oil business goes awry, his wife, Anna (Jessica Chastain) offers to call in her criminal father for help but Abel refuses similarly when his devious lawyer, Andrew Walsh (Albert Brooks) suggests arming his truck drivers – he won’t hear of it.
His continued fastidiousness in manners and: ‘the one path that is the most right’ begins to become his undoing as the darkness encircles him and a persistent District Attorney Lawrence (David Oyelowo) hounds him.
With an immaculate mise-en-scene including vintage Armani outfits for Jessica Chastain, this film may start like a typical gangster thriller but soon reveals as about marriage and class with a menacing violent undercurrent.
Images courtesy of Icon Movies UK
