There are some films that have great trailers and end up with a disappointing result, and then there are some films with god awful trailers that end up surprising us, unfortunately A Most Violent Year is the former. It's not a bad film by any stretch of the imagination. But there was great promise here. The trailers spoke to the 'greatest crime year in New York' vibe and I thought it may be a more grounded version of Goodfellas. Unfortunately, the film ends up being a slow burn story about a hard working oil businessman who ends up getting tangled in a serious of crimes against his own business.

The problem is, the crimes aren't really anywhere to be found. Most of them occur off screen and lack the tension building that a film like this needs. J.C. Chandor is a great director who turned a very boring story on paper, Margin Call, into an unbelievably tension filled drama. But this film is centered around crime that ends up being a tad too slow to make it memorable. I will say the performances alone are worth seeing. Oscar Isaac and Jessica Chastain are two of the best actors working today and they do well playing off of each other. It was also fun seeing Chastain back in the powerful female lead much like her role in Zero Dark Thirty. She ends up doing most of the hard work for the business, or more like the off the books dirty work. But Isaac is also great at acting with his eyes. There aren't many actors who can say paragraphs of dialogue just by using their eyes in a certain way. As much as I loved the two's dynamic, I wish the film would have been even more focused on them than the excessive amount of conversations he has with other businessman. It just seemed like the film's focus should have been elsewhere.

Back to the New York setting, the film is gorgeous and does paint a picture of what NY probably looked like at that time, it's just unfortunate that the crime element of the film was lacking. Chandor nailed the Margin Call script, but here it seems he didn't know exactly what the film was supposed to be. I didn't feel any sense of worth. In other words, I wasn't exactly sure what the film was trying to say to the audience. But I loved the performances and the film looks beautiful. And at times, in terms of character drama, the film can be intense. I just wish the entire film was filled with that same sense of dramatic tension that Margin Call brought to the table.

+Looks gorgeous

+Lead performances are magnetic

+Intense when it wants to be..

-..But it lacked tension when the film called for it

-Nothing too special

6.7/10