Film Review: A Most Violent Year

It’s 1981, and tension is brewing.

Abel Morales (Oscar Isaac) is a self-made man; he’s an immigrant who has tried to keep his business clean, despite the temptation to resort to crime. However, with several New York family businesses in tense competition for the same market, violence erupts.

By Keeva Stratton

Abel Morales is currently under investigation for fraud, while at the same time an unknown gang of violent thieves is targeting his business. His employees are scared and he is losing money, but he refuses to take measures into his own hands. Despite mounting pressure from his father-in-law and his wife, he will not arm his men.

Abel’s wife, Anna (Jessica Chastain), is the daughter of a known crime-lord. Unlike her husband, she doesn’t believe in playing by book, especially when your family is threatened. For Morales to keep his wife, his business and his sense of morality intact, he faces dire odds.

Being a just man in a time of injustice is difficult—and it may just cost him everything.

Jessica Chastain is brilliant—as we’ve come to expect from her. She manages to portray an empowered woman who is free from the tired stereotypes of a mob daughter or wife.

Oscar Isaac also provides a nuanced performance of a man who is in many ways powerful and yet equally vulnerable. One can’t help but notice the resemblance to a young Pacino in the film’s poster, and his fine performance does justice to the genre.

While A Most Violent Year is indeed violent, it is surprisingly less bloody than many of the crime dramas that have come before it. This is its strength. Rather than dish out a large serving of blood lust, the violence here is pointed and meaningful. It’s disturbing—as it should be—which brings to life the fear and distress many trapped in a world laden with a criminal underbelly must feel.

Chilling, but impressive.