I know this movie isn't for everyone as it's slower paced and less violent than many current movies in it's genre, but I found it every engaging. Great screenplay, beautifully shot and well acted.
For me, the best part was the ending which summed up the point of the movie. After the suicide, Abel just walks past the body and plugs the hole so the oil doesn't leak. So much is said in that scene even though no words are spoken.
8.5/10 for me.
This film is all about the ending. That scene is what gives the film it's whole meaning.
shareIt doesn't really "give it" meaning as much as it does restate the central theme.
Or hammer home the point it was trying to make for the dummies at home.
I kinda found it jarring that the film felt it needed to tack that on to what was otherwise subtle understated, bordering on ambiguous. I think it would have done better without.
Let's not give him the cake.share
What was the point that was hammered home, which was otherwise ambiguous? Personally I didn't get the impression there was anything heavy-handed.
shareFor me, the ending was the weakest part. The movie goes through great lengths to show that Abel is an talented, charismatic, intelligent, decent man. His most intimately expressed emotions (fights with his wife, in particular), reveal him to be what he says he is. But then, in the space of a night, after the big fight over the unreported money his wife has been skimming off the top, he changes course and chooses to live a lie. It's not the decision that bothers me. I can accept most any business man making the same decision given the circumstances. What I can't accept is how complacently Abel chooses his path. After he yells and screams at his wife, "You stole from me!", he goes to sleep and wakes up as pragmatic as ever. Doesn't he feel betrayed? Doesn't he hate his wife? Doesn't he fire the lawyer who kept secrets from him? The movie doesn't express this emptiness.
Either Abel was a liar all along, or he chooses to become a liar. Either way, the movie completely fails to express this desolation. J.C. Chandor has created a cautionary tale that lacks the ominous element: It's a stop sign without the red paint.
My rating: 8
There's also a lot I liked about the movie: It was exceedingly beautiful. A yellow tinted Manhattan juxtaposed against those squeaky clean green trucks, I could watch that all day. Oscar Isaac is becoming one of my favorite actors to watch. While I can't say I've seen him express any exceedingly nuanced emotions yet (possibly no director has asked it of him), I really appreciate his range, from misanthropic (Inside Llewyn Davis) to bully (Ex Machina) to slick (A Most Violent Year), all with seemingly little effort. Jessica Chastain's presence felt like a loaded gun. A wife like that would drive me crazy: lots of sex, divorce within a year. Really, the older I get, the less I understand how anyone does marriage. The slice of history, New York city's violence in the eighties, added another point of interest. I liked how pristine Abel's business appeared versus the city's squalor. I loved Abel's yellow cape. So classy. At first I was ready to dislike the guy because I've been conditioned to feel aversion towards anybody in the oil/gas business, but his actions kept winning me over. It was an interesting play against expectations.
The movie goes through great lengths to show that Abel is an talented, charismatic, intelligent, decent man.
I don't think he was lying the whole time, I think he was an mostly honest man but he was a ruthless businessman I.e poaching customers from competitors, stopping at nothing to catch the guy who stole the last truck. At the end when faced with the decision on whether to use the stolen money he ultimately went through with it because it was technically his money anyway so he'd rather go that "path" than take loans from his competition.
shareI thought it was rather overblown, What was the driver really guilty of, shooting at some hijackers? He could have prolly gotten off by taking it to a jury. And a .45 slug isn't going to go through someone's head ain't going to go through the steel plates of a tank. They are over an inch thick.
What are they doing? Why do they come here?
Some kind of instinct, memory, what they used to do.