After several days without commenting on a film, I decided to take the first thing I had on hand and see it, and that's how I came across A Most Violent Year. After seeing the film, I came to the conclusion that I will have to continue choosing the films that I will see completely randomly, because of the last 20 films I've seen, the best ones were those that I started to see in a improvised way, unlike those I looked forward to and did not meet expectations.

---

>>Source <<

---

Year: 2014
Category: Crime, Drama.
Director: J. C. Chandor.
Cast: Oscar Isaac, Jessica Chastain, Alessandro Nivola, David Oyelowo, Albert Brooks, Catalina Sandino Moreno, Ashley Williams, Elyes Gabel, Jerry Adler, Christopher Abbott, Elizabeth Marvel, Peter Gerety, Glenn Fleshler, David Margulies, Annie Funke, Patrick Breen, Matthew Maher, Jason Ralph.

---

Plot

It tells the story of the owner of a small heating-oil company that is pressured by competitiveness in the oil trade and his need to obtain expensive loans to expand his business.

---

Opinion

At the beginning of the 1980s, in New York, Abel Morales leads an up-and-coming company, his problem is that the company's trucks responsible for transporting heating oil are assaulted, and then they are found empty, in addition, in each assault the lives of their employees are in danger, and in the most recent, Julian, one of the drivers, is severely beaten.

In the face of what appears to be a boycott against him and his company, Abel decides to maintain a passive and completely law-abiding position, maintaining contact with Assistant District Attorney Lawrence, who besides not helping Abel, decides to initiate a process of investigation into his company, since Anna Morales, Abel's wife, is the daughter of a man of great influence associated with the Mafia, suspicions also hover over the Abel's business, who despite the accusations decides to stand firm, convinced of his innocence and honesty.

Given the harsh circumstance, Abel will have a lot of pressure on his shoulders, the lives of his employees are in danger, and they are being incited to take justice into their own hands, something that he does not want to happen since he is currently putting all his savings in a risky expansion that will be achieved through negotiations to acquire a property that belongs to a Hasidim group, which gives him a term to complete the operation in 30 days or otherwise lose the down payment. All that without mentioning the research that the Assistant District Attorney is doing, the countless thefts to his merchandise, the competitors that want to get him out of business, and a wife that encourages him to make more violent decisions.

Abel will have to deal with all his problems, but for him any option is not valid, he can only make the right decision.

The film is really very good, I'm quite satisfied with what I saw on screen, I like every aspect of the film, from the staging, the weather, to the performances, not to mention the very good shots that include the camera in motion while the characters run across the road fleeing for some reason.

The film not only maintains a good script and an excellent direction at the hand of J. C. Chandor, which I know of previous works as Margin Call, film that I had planned to talk about a few months ago but for some reason I did not; It is also responsible for transmitting a clear and strong message: Not all roads are valid, you have to take the most correct one.

The acting work is wonderful, mainly what was done by Oscar Isaac and Jessica Chastain, great both, making a perfect combination between their characters which have a very different character and temperament, one is the opposite of the other. The rest of the actors do an acceptable job, perhaps the one that stands out most is Elyes Gabel.

In short, the film is quite good, keeps the intrigue all the time, however, the movie is a chess board that is played with a cool head, maintaining patience is necessary to understand the events in their true dimension and find the real meaning of everything they show us.

---

Trailer