'A Most Violent Year' is mostly a letdown

After an extended discussion with my girlfriend I've come to the conclusion that perhaps the best way to appreciate a film is to determine whether it accomplishes what the filmmaker intended for the movie to do.

It's impossible, for instance, to directly compare a subversive comedy like Birdman with a powerful drama like Selma. They are both masterpieces on their own terms and they both evoked the emotions I believed their makers were seeking from an audience.

A Most Violent Year is a very difficult film to classify -- it's neither great nor bad, although there is a tremendous amount to like about it.

Still, it fails to live up to its promise or premise and therefore I think it'll go down a noble failure, or at least a letdown.

I admired more than enjoyed the director J.C. Chandor's critically acclaimed first film Margin Call, a talky technical look at the economic meltdown from a few years back. But I thought his one-man adventure All Is Lost, starring Robert Redford, was a revelation. So I was excited to see his next foray into writing-directing. When I first saw trailers from A Most Violent Year I was almost certain it would make my top 10 list for the year. It featured a dream cast, it appeared to be a gangster film (my favorite genre) and it was set in a period and locale that fascinates me -- early 1980s New York.

Now that I have seen it I can admit that the movie does an excellent job of capturing the look of that era, and it has a lot of interesting acting in it -- but it's devoid of passion or heat. It's all set-up with virtually no pay-off and what conclusions there are aren't that compelling.

The film centers around an up-and-coming fuel-trucking company magnate who is trying to expand his business in a corrupt industry where his competitors may or may not be targeting him and his family with violent reprisal. This sounds like a set-up for a dynamite thriller but with the exception of a couple well executed jump scares, the film repeatedly diffuses the tension it creates.

Jessica Chastain in A Most Violent Year

My suspicion is that Chandor, despite his film's title, wasn't interested in making a conventional shoot-'em-up, which is fine. But as a pure character study the movie is lacking too. Isaac is a terrific actor and he is compelling in the lead role, but the character as written is very static. He is noble and earnest, seemingly sincere -- but then he also can seem emotionally stunted and cold at times.

He has no arc, he is pitched as a Michael Corleone-type, but that classic character would be a bore if he didn't eventually descend into darkness. Isaac's character almost does.

It doesn't help that his performance/character is contrasted repeatedly with Jessica Chastain's gleefully over-the-top performance as his crime-boss-daughter wife. From her accent to her nails to her revealing costumes, Chastain is a hoot (and a likely Oscar nominee in a weak year for women's roles) but she feels like she belongs in another movie. It's like she is appearing in a flashy DePalma film, while everyone else (including a great, but underused Albert Brooks) is acting like they're in a low-key, quiet film.

I was excited to see some sort of social commentary on the era in which the film takes place but instead the city barely serves as a backdrop to the inert story. It feels like this could have taken place in Philadelphia or Chicago, and as a New Yorker that seems like a wasted opportunity.

That said, A Most Violent Year has its interesting moments and I don't regret having seen it. I like that Isaac's character is an immigrant and his social climbing is intriguing, as is his complicated relationship with a DA investigating him (played beautifully by David Oyelowo). Chandor is definitely a smart director and I'm more than willing to write this one off as a minor disappointment.

A Most Violent Year isn't particularly violent or the most -- instead it feels like a very long first episode of what could have been a solid HBO series, not an epic cinematic experience.