'A Most Violent Year'

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 8, 2014 ‘Elsa & Fred’- tale of two senior citizens ot even the ever-winning company fussily attends to Dad’s every concern even park, nice dinners and sweet guitar sere- geonly routine in his sleep, though it’s a far of Shirley MacLaine and Christopher as she and her husband (Chris Noth) try to nades ensue. cry from his much more nuanced portrait of NPlummer is enough to reward the coax him into donating $90,000 to a hope- There is the occasional hiccup-Elsa turns late-in-life blossoming in “Beginners.” viewer’s investment in “Elsa and Fred,” a less business venture. One can scarcely out to be a rather colorful spinner of tall Elsa’s favorite movie is “La dolce vita,” bland and formulaic tale of two senior citi- blame the cantankerous old coot for want- tales, to put it mildly, a fact that’s milked for which she rewatches obsessively; the result- zens who discover that it’s never too late to ing to lie in bed all day and be left alone, awkward situational laughs one minute ing excerpts count as easily the most com- fall in love-which may well be true, but even when his hired caretaker (Erika (including a two-scene James Brolin cameo) pelling moments of “Elsa & Fred.” It’s doesn’t keep this rickety recycling of a 2005 Alexander) urges him to get out for some and shameless tears the next. For a movie perhaps an unfair truism that any extended Spanish-Argentinean comedy from feeling fresh air. that’s ostensibly about casting off the homage to a vastly superior movie will long past its sell-by date. Joining the recent The infusion of oxygen he needs, it turns shackles of old age and embracing excite- merely leave you feeling all the more Michael Douglas-Diane Keaton vehicle “And out, comes courtesy of Elsa (MacLaine), the ment in life, there isn’t a single moment resentful toward the one you’re stuck with. So It Goes” as depressing evidence of the spirited widow who lives next door, and here that feels original or spontaneous-and But Elsa’s longing for her own Trevi dwindling Hollywood options available to whose carelessness behind the wheel one not just because of the faithful-to-a-fault Fountain moment is cloyingly overplayed, Film Review excellent actors past a certain age, the day necessitates a few remunerative run-ins adaptation by Anna Pavignano and Michael building all the way to a predictable Roman- Millennium Entertainment release might with her new neighbor. Radford, who does his fine cast no favors holiday climax that feels less uplifting than get a mild commercial boost from its cast Giddy, whimsical, meddlesome and by directing them to strained sitcom condescending. It’s as though the film were names, but otherwise looks to quickly totter slightly endearing when she’s not totally rhythms. Stuck in roles that require them to encouraging the audience to emit a collec- in and out of theaters. annoying, Elsa gradually wears down Fred’s shift abruptly between sweet and sour as tive, cheek-pinching “awww” as these two Several months after his wife’s death, defenses, her vivacious energy gradually the plot dictates, the leads get by largely on aging lovers bask in one last moment of grumpy old Fred (Christopher Plummer) awakening his own long-dormant charm. audience affection: MacLaine’s dignity pre- glamour and sensuality before ... well, to moves into his own New Orleans apartment It’s not long before the old man flushes his vails even when she’s forced to do things spell it out would be both superfluous and with the less-than-welcome assistance of his meds and his attitude, learning to embrace like dance along to “Shake It” on the car unkind. Suffice to say that the end comes daughter, Lydia (Marcia Gay Harden), who life for the gift that it is; long walks in the radio, while Plummer could do this curmud- not a moment too soon. — Reuters ‘A Most Violent Year’ hen “New York, New York” lyricist Mamet’s “Glengarry Glen Ross,” “A Most business). None of this is news to Isaac’s Fred Ebb wrote that immortal Violent Year” seems to have been steeped Abel Morales, who started out as a lowly Wline, “If I can make it there, I’ll overnight in a solution equal parts Sidney truck driver himself, but somewhere along make it anywhere,” it’s doubtful he imag- Lumet and Lumet’s consummate latter-day the way fell in love with the boss’ daugh- ined the life-or-death stakes such senti- reinterpreter, James Gray. The setting is ter, Anna (Jessica Chastain), and bought ments take on in “A Most Violent Year,” an 1981, the year of Lumet’s masterful police the business from him. And while Anna’s ‘80s-era NYC crime drama in which just corruption drama “Prince of the City,” and dad was all mobbed up, Abel prizes making it from one day to the next seems it’s possible to see a continuity between squeaky-clean transparency. like a major accomplishment. In his third that movie’s naive whistleblower cop With the conviction common to the turn behind the camera, writer-director J.C. (played by Treat Williams) and Isaac’s self-made, the born-again and other fanat- Chandor has delivered a tough, gritty, rich- upstart businessman here-two virtuous cru- ics, Abel prides himself on forward move- ly atmospheric thriller that lacks some of saders who put too much trust in funda- ment through society’s real and perceived the formal razzle-dazzle of his solo seafar- mentally broken systems. Chandor’s film barriers, having shed all but the slightest ing epic, “All Is Lost,” but makes up for it bears an even stronger likeness, though, to traces of his immigrant heritage, built his with an impressively sustained low-boil Gray’s little-seen sophomore feature, “The family a sprawling suburban McMansion, tension and the skillful navigating of a Yards” (2000), which built a similar tale of and developed strategies for routing the complex plot (at least up until a wholly ambition, free enterprise and moral com- competition with a minimum of dirty tricks. In a striking, Mamet-esque early Producers Anna Gerb, left, and Neil Dodson arrive at 2014 AFI Fest - “A scene, he coaches a new crop of sales Most Violent Year” at the Dolby Theatre on Thursday, in Los Angeles. associates on how to make a first impres- But when Chandor feels it’s warranted, he has been the ballsy, forward-pushing sion: Keep eye contact for longer than turns up the heat, including a tense dynamo, and “A Most Violent Year” is no feels comfortable; ask for tea instead of shootout on the 59th Street Bridge, and an real exception. Though she’s not quite as coffee (the classier option); always be the utterly terrific chase sequence that begins well served as Isaac by the script, her Anna model of tact and decorum. “We’re never by car, transitions to foot, and ends on an is around long enough for us to see that going to be the cheapest,” he advises, “so elevated B train hurtling through the outer she’s every inch her father’s daughter, and we have to be the best.” boroughs. far less religious than Abel when it comes When the movie opens, it’s clear that to playing by the rules. Abel’s success mantra doesn’t sit so well Marvelous As in “Margin Call,” Chandor has with one or more of his fellow oil mer- Which makes it all the more disap- fleshed out the extensive supporting cast chants. While the city at large panics from pointing on those rare occasions that with the kind of veteran character actors an all-time-high crime rate (the impetus Chandor overplays his hand, mostly in a who seem to bring a lifetime of experience for Chandor’s title), Abel’s Standard subplot having to do with a panicked with them when they enter the frame: Heating Co. finds itself engulfed in its own young Standard driver (Elyes Gabel) who Albert Brooks, wonderfully weary and brutal turf war, with drivers-and eventual- goes on the lam after his second violent resigned as Abel’s in-house lawyer; ly, even sales reps-robbed at gunpoint, truckjacking. Alessandro Nivola as the courtliest of beaten, shot at, or all of the above. Even “A Most Violent Year” may not ulti- Abel’s competitors, practicing his back- Abel’s own family isn’t safe from harm, as mately tell us anything new about big-city hand both on and off his Gatsby-sized a late-night gun-wielding prowler proves corruption, thwarted idealism and the indoor tennis court; and Jerry Adler (“The early on. And the timing couldn’t be steep price of admission to the American Sopranos’” Hesh) as the orthodox Jew From left, Elyes Gabel, Oscar Isaac, Jessica Chastain, J.C. Chandor and worse, just as Abel is starting escrow on a dream. But it says those things with a kind landlord who holds the deed on Abel’s David Oyelowo arrive at 2014 AFI Fest - “A Most Violent Year” at the Dolby long-abandoned waterfront fuel yard that of conviction that reminds you why ambi- future. Theatre on Thursday, in Los Angeles. — AP photos will put him in a real position to corner the tious hustlers like Abel Morales keep striv- The movie is also a triumph of subtle market, and a young district attorney (a ing for their imagined piece of the pie period craftsmanship on almost every lev- unnecessary last-minute twist).

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