Although it is radically different from his two previous works, the Wall Street drama Margin Call (2011) and the lost-at-sea tale All Is Lost (2012)—Chandor is proving himself to be, if anything, a magnificent cinematic chameleon—A Most Violent Year is ripe with variations on their themes, particularly the economic violence of Margin Call and the instinct for survival at the center of All Is Lost. Like the latter film, which featured Robert Redford as a man completely isolated in the middle of the ocean fighting for survival against the elements and dumb luck, Chandor’s protagonist in A Most Violent Year is, despite being physically surrounded by others, fundamentally isolated in his desire to succeed differently than those around him, which elevates him morally but also puts him at great risk.

We meet the protagonist, Abel Morales (Oscar Isaac, Inside Llewyn Davis) as he goes to make the biggest deal of his life: Buying a piece of industrial riverfront property that he will use as the foundation for greatly expanding his already successful heating oil company. With help from his wife, Anna (Jessica Chastain), and lawyer/consigliore, Andrew Walsh (Albert Brooks), he is literally risking everything, having leveraged all of his savings into buying this property, which he must close in 30 days with an additional $1.5 million or lose what he has already put into it. The problem is that Abel’s business is being targeted by an unknown group that is intent on putting him out of business by hijacking his fuel trucks, which is done in broad daylight on open streets. Abel’s drivers are terrified, he is losing tens of thousands of dollars in fuel and equipment, and the local union leader is putting pressure on him to arm his drivers, a move that Abel wisely sees as potentially incendiary.

Abel is also being dogged by the New York district attorney (David Oyelowo), who is opening a massive investigation into his business. Abel insists that he has done nothing wrong, even as certain actions, such as quickly stowing away file boxes beneath the house when the police serve a search warrant, suggest that he is hiding something. One of the chief tensions in A Most Violent Year rides on the question of Abel’s morality: Is he really as upstanding as he presents himself, or are there skeletons in the closet just waiting to emerge?

As he did last year in Joel and Ethan Coen’s Inside Llewyn Davis (2013), Isaac plays a man of strong will and conviction who is intent on doing things his way, and if Abel is an infinitely more interesting and sympathetic character than Davis was, it is because he lacks the former’s whiny sense of entitlement. Abel is a man who has built his life from the ground up, refusing easier paths (such as Anna’s mob-connected father, whose existence inherently taints his achievements); watching that life being pecked away by unseen forces creates a growing sense of dread and anger, for both Abel and us. Despite his stoic exterior, Abel is clearly a man of passion, and there are several moments when he lets his guard down and either explodes in fury or reveals the depths of his looming despondency. The film presents his achievement as a potential model, albeit one that is difficult to emulate, as depicted in the subplot involving Julian (Elyes Gabel), a young driver who works for Abel and finds himself in the crosshairs when he retaliates during an attempting jacking of his truck, which puts both him and Abel’s business at great risk.

Despite several exciting setpieces, including a hectic chase through the city’s industrial back streets and railroad tracks, A Most Violent Year is a purposeful slow boil, with Abel trying desperately to hold onto his principles while the world seems stacked against them. The film’s driving question of whether he can maintain those principles and survive in a cutthroat world that thrives on unprincipled behavior is nothing new, but Chandor and his cast find consistently compelling ways of dramatizing the conflict. No one is quite who he or she seems, which keeps us constantly guessing about who will do what next. Chastain’s role, in particular, is complicated, in that she plays what could be a clichéd Lady Macbeth role that morphs into something both more nuanced and much darker. While ambition is the key to social mobility and financial success, Chandor’s film lays bare the inherent dangers of moving up the ladder when so many others above you have so much to lose.

Copyright ©2015 James Kendrick

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