I don’t know what J. C. Chandor’s impetus was to make A Most Violent Year — it’s not one of those movie ideas that instantly grabs one’s attention — but the result is an engrossing study of a couple (Oscar Isaac, Jessica Chastain) under enormous pressure to complete a business deal or lose everything in 1981 New York City.  For me, its greatest reward is finally giving Oscar Isaac a likable role.  Isaac, who has made more than twenty movies, hadn’t impressed me at all until this film, but here he delivers one of the year’s better performances.

Isaac’s character, Abel Morales, has the slowest fuse imaginable, yet that is exactly why Morales has become a success in the oil heating business, and is looking toward expansion.  He has a plan and won’t let anyone spoil it, even when the specter of violence raises its ugly head.  His wife Anna is quick-tempered, vengeful and ready to protect her assets at any cost.  It is all Abel can do to keep Anna in check and ride out the storm that surrounds his big business deal.

I really like the way Morales handles himself and works incredibly hard to maintain his personal integrity.  His ethics are at the crux of the drama, especially when it would seem to behoove him to retaliate or bend the rules.  That holds up until the film’s final act, when compromise is forced upon him.  At that point things become inevitable.  The wrap-up is a bit too tidy for my taste, but it works pretty well and indicates just how the world works (and worked back then, too).

Isaac is excellent, Chastain is good but her part is underwritten.  David Oyelowo is a district attorney eyeing Morales for corruption; I suspect that part of his character’s motivation was racially motivated, but it is hard to be certain.  Albert Brooks scores as a slinky lawyer, while Elyes Gabel portrays the most human, and pitiable, of the film’s characters with unexpected poignancy.  The film leaves a few of its important moments offscreen, which is either brilliant or maddening, or both, and never quite settles a couple of important logistical questions.  Even so, I enjoyed this movie even more than Chandor’s last film, All is Lost (I have yet to see his first film, Margin Call) and now I am looking forward to his next project.  ☆ ☆ ☆.  4 February 2015.