Review of Blood Ties (2014) by Dawdlingpoet — 28 Nov 2021

This is a crime drama film, which is quite slow paced, plot wise but half way through I felt it did become really quite tense. Themes covered include (somewhat obviously) family ties/sibling rivalry and trust. It is somewhat stylish, given the soundtrack, with various rock and pop hits, such as Sunshine Of Your Love by Cream, Do What You Gotta Do by Al Wilson, Then He Kissed Me by The Crystals, Money Is by Little Richard and The Long Way Round by Gerry Rafferty.

It is fairly emotive and atmospheric in parts, such as one scene set on a beach during a misty day, in which we can hear a piano playing somewhat in the background. There are some fairly gripping fight scenes, mostly involving gunfire - one inparticular had me waiting to see if they'd play the Beastie Boys 'Sabotage' (a 1980s track) or something similar, as its quite gritty and had that sort of rebellious, anarchic feel to it. The camerawork is fairly swift and jerky at times, especially during the fast paced fight scenes, when it cuts from one camera, or angle, to another. Otherwise I'm not sure if anything about the camerawork came to mind.

I felt that Billy Crudup did particularly well in his role, portraying Frank as a professional, dedicated cop, while also desperately wishing to see his brother in a better light and thus having to juggle his personal and work life. He seemed genuinely troubled by the situations he found himself in and he seemed to play his role quite convincingly. Its the interaction between Crudup and Owen (Clive Owen, who plays Chris) that make the film work relatively well.

Other cast members include James Caan as the patriarch (father figure) Leon, who seems quite wise and philosophical to an extent and Noah Emmerich as Lieutenant Connellan. There are numerous actresses present too, including Marion Cottilard as Monica, Zoe Saldana as Vanessa and Mila Kunis as Natalie. I'm more used to seeing Kunis appear in jovial comedy films, which this is obviously not, so it was interesting to see her in a more serious role. She seemed to do well in her part, coming across as both nervous and wise/clued-up.

Content wise, this film contains moderate violence, including gunfire and bloody injury shown, if only briefly. There is also a, shall we say 'liberal' use of quite strong language one or two racist or racism related references are made and there are sex and drug references too, so suffice to say it isn't one to be watched with kids around(!). This film has a 15 rating to reflect said content.

To be fair, the film ends on a pretty tense and suspenseful, long drawn out scene, which involves a relatively fast paced car chase and a large, claustrophobic area with hundreds of members of the public unknowingly hiding the character trying to get away. I felt this final scene was quite well done and perhaps slightly thought provoking.

To me overall, not including the ending, it seemed pretty forgettable and as such isn't exactly a brilliant film, although I imagine some people may well enjoy it more than I did. It is inevitably somewhat depressing and it took a bit too long for the story to build up much, so it didn't especially impress me but I wouldn't say its an awful film. Hopefully what I've told you will be enough to help you judge if this is something you may enjoy watching or not.

No I wouldn't go out of your way to watch this. It does feature some decent performances, most notably from Billy Crudup (in my opinion, of course) but I felt it was a bit too slow for the plot to develop and it was a bit dark and depressing overall, so I didn't especially enjoy it, compared to other similar films. Its ok as an ocassionally emotive crime drama and it has an element of style or flair to it via the soundtrack but it just didn't quite work entirely for me personally, compared to other similar films.