Review of A Most Violent Year (2014) by Ryan L — 10 Jan 2016

I expected a lot from a movie starring Oscar Isaac, Jessica Chastain, and Albert Brooks about a business man doing everything in his power to not fail. I expected great acting (which I got), I expected a great script (I somewhat got), and I expected a film that made me never lose interest (I did not get).

I wanted to fall in love with this movie. I wanted to be blown away by it. I wanted a compelling story. This story was ok, and vaguely interesting at certain times, but it isn't all that I hoped for. The first 10-20 of this film mesmerized me with its pace and great sense of not knowing what exactly these people were. If the movie stayed this way the entire run length, I would have given it a solid 4 1/2 stars. But my god did this movie slow down. All the way until the end if this film I nearly lost all interest. There were certain scenes of greatness, most of which all involved a minor character named Julian, this movie was almost too slow to be bearable. If the pacing was a little faster and the film had a little more focus on what it should really be about, it would be a much better film.

Positives: the acting is phenomenal, Oscar Isaac is great in this role as he always is. This is an actor who I have never seen give a bad performance. He will win an oscar one day. A well deserved one. Jessica Chastain is also good in her role as Oscar Isaac's wife. Now to the standout role of this film, Albert Brooks. He was by far my favorite character and the most mysterious and underused. I was wishing he was in this movie so much more. Brooks give his finest performance since Drive, and is absolutely perfect. The film is also very well shot and good looking. Good score and editing. But my favorite aspect to this movie is it's ending. The final 25 minutes to this film bumped it up an entire star. If the whole film were as interesting and suspenseful as the first 20 and the last 20 minutes, I would have loved this film.

Overall, it's not terrible. The acting is great, and ending is fantastic, but the film has serious pacing issues and is nearly unbearably for the majority of this film. The script is good but the story is eh, not as compelling as I would have liked. 3/5 stars for the acting and ending but overall, I will not watch this film again and I do not recommend it.