The embryonic stages of J.C. Chandor’s career have given us a director methodical in his approach to weaving tales of fallible men, drowning as the world about them collapses. In Margin Call it was the financial kind, whereas it was the literal sort as Robert Redford battled the elements in All Is Lost. A Most Violent Year continues this trend, as Oscar Issac’s businessman struggles to prevent his company and family being caught up in a climate of crime, set against the backdrop of an increasingly corrupt New York City.
Ambitious immigrant Abel Morales (Issac) runs Standard Heating Oil, a fuel distribution company with lorries scattered across the boroughs delivering fuel. His wife and bookkeeper, Anna (Jessica Chastain) is the daughter of a very powerful man, and his confidante (Albert Brooks) appears to skirt the periphery of the criminal underworld. Their increasingly affluent lifestyle is threatened when their trucks start to be hijacked, which leads to mounting debts and fingers of suspicion pointed in the direction of their more nefarious partners.
With something of an unusual and refreshing storytelling approach, A Most Violent Year drops you straight into the lives of its characters, with no back-story spoon feeding, on-the-nose exposition, or audience pandering. Reputations have been forged, crimes have already been committed, and a series of events have already been set in motion.
