Written and directed by J.C. Chandor (Margin Call, All is Lost), A Most Violent Year has a different take on the American dream. While it does not question the fact that the poor can rise to the top by virtue of their own hard work and perseverance, Chandor lets us know that they can also be helped by illegal or unethical business practices. Set in 1981 in New York City, a record year for rapes and murders, Abel Morales (Oscar Isaac), a recent immigrant who started as a truck driver, strives to hold fast to his ideals but is forced by reason of necessity to compromise them. Morales is a tough competitor in the heating oil business in New York City but is looking to cement his position and rise even farther by purchasing a riverfront oil-holding facility from Hasidic Jews.

Threats to his position, however, arise from unknown rivals who attack his door-to-door sales people and zero in on one of his drivers, Julian (Elyes Gabel), while siphoning oil from his tankers. They even go so far as to send a gunman to stalk his home and leave a loaded gun for Abel's young daughter to play with. Morales desperately wants to avoid a turf war but is challenged to act more decisively by his tough-minded wife Anna (Jessica Chastain), whose mafia-connected father originally sold him the business. To show she means business, after Abel hits a deer on the highway and is queasy about finishing him off, Anna makes sure that the deer is put out of its misery.

Anna's tough stand has support from Andrew Walsh (David Brooks), Morales' lawyer, who wants to arm the drivers over Morales' objections. Complicating matters even further, an ambitious prosecutor in the DA's office (David Oyelowo) is preparing an indictment against the company on unspecified charges of fraud, though Morales insists everything he has done has complied with industry standards. Whether or not the charges are legitimate is never made clear. When Morales' driver Julian takes it upon himself to carry a gun and engages in a shootout with the hijackers on the 59th Street Bridge, the banks become leery and pull out of the loan agreement leaving Morales with only two days to raise the money to complete the real estate deal.

A Most Violent Year has captured the gritty realism of big-city life and the performances are uniformly terrific, especially Isaac, with his clean-cut, deep thinking, but don't trust me look. He is a character cut in the cloth of Michael Corleone, but sadly one whose ruthlessness he ends up emulating. One of Isaac's most impressive scenes is his attempt to coach new salesman in the specific methods they need to close a deal. "Hold their attention longer than you should," he suggests. "If they offer tea or coffee, ask for tea because we have to look like the best." Chastain does her usual good work but her character is so changeable from one scene to the next, that it is hard to figure out whether her relationship with Abel is a business deal or whether there is actually some affection involved.

While the film builds an undercurrent of tension that keeps us paying attention, something seems to be missing. It may be perhaps that none of the characters demonstrate much growth or are particularly likable. Except for the shootout and a chase through New York subway tunnels with Morales in a suit and a camel-hair coat, there is little to engage the senses. While A Most Violent Year maintains its brooding solemnity throughout, it never really comes to grips with what it wants to be. Is it a crime drama, a character study of immigrants, a primer on big-city corruption, an attack on American capitalism, a philosophical treatise on business ethics? Perhaps it is a little bit of all of the above but, in spite of some gripping moments, it does not quite live up to its potential to excel in any of them.