Blood Ties, 2013.
Directed by Guillaume Canet.
Starring Clive Own, Marion Cotillard, Billy Crudup, Mila Kunis, Zoe Saldana, Matthias Schoenaerts, James Caan, Noah Emmerich and Lili Taylor.
SYNOPSIS:
Chris (Clive Owen) has just been released from prison on good behaviour, several years after he was involved in a gangland murder. Waiting for him reluctantly outside is his younger brother, Frank (Billy Crudup), a cop with a bright future. Hoping that Chris has changed, Frank is willing to give his brother a chance – he shares his home, finds him a job and helps him reconnect with his children and ex-wife. But Chris’ past quickly begins to catch up with him and his descent back into a life of crime becomes inevitable.
When you read a synopsis like the one for Blood Ties, you can’t help but think that it’s a fairly generic and familiar story. Thankfully it’s nowhere near as black and white as it first appears.
The film has multiple themes and plot points but is effectively about two brothers, their broken relationship and how they’ve ended up on vastly different paths. Interestingly, they are not portrayed as the good brother and the bad brother but simply two men who both their flaws as well as their strengths.
We watch as the two brothers become more estranged as they go about their lives all the while retaining some small part of their brotherly bond. It’s actually an incredibly complex relationship that, without the talents of Owen and Crudup, probably wouldn’t work.
Chris is a charismatic, and at times frightening, character that could have so easily been the unsympathetic villain of the piece. Instead, Owen manages to give Chris a subtle charm which ends up making the violent outbursts all the more shocking.
Crudup’s character Frank on the other hand is very much the other side of the coin. An honest and decent man who clearly wants to care for his brother but struggles to see beyond his past.
I don’t want to say too much about how their relationship changes but in short, Owen and Crudup’s performances are nothing short of wonderful with the build up to their finale being simply excellent cinema.
This isn’t to say that the rest of the cast isn’t great, quite the opposite in fact. Everyone is superbly cast in their roles and all manage to contribute something to the story. But then, in a film that includes James Caan, Marion Cotillard, Zoe Saldana and Mila Kunis as the supporting players, it’s not a massive surprise that everyone pulls their weight.
We should also praise Guillaume Canet, the director of the film, for his excellent work. Admittedly the film is a tad overlong and there are a couple of niggling issues you can find but the world in which the film’s set is truly flawless. Canet has managed to perfectly capture the mood and atmosphere of 70’s New York without going over the top the way pictures like American Hustle have done in the past.
Instead, Canet uses locations, music and camera work to conjure up a glimpse back in time that is so believable it actually feels like it has been shot in the 70’s.
Regrettably though, there are problems with the film. Depending on how entranced you are with what’s on screen, you may not care or even notice but unfortunately, there are too many to ignore.
The tone of the movie, while pretty consistent, does jump around far too much and manages to take you out of the picture far too regularly. You could argue that it’s used to good effect to show the negative side of a couple of the characters but I would definitely say it leaps around far too much to keep you regularly engaged.
The other major niggle would be the romantic plot points. Both are constructed in a very peculiar way and left me wondering how just how much of a dick you need to be before a beautiful woman won’t fall in love with you. I mean, one’s a murderer and the other’s a stalker yet they both end up with the girl – very strange indeed.
All in all though, these are only a couple of small problems in a mostly excellent picture. The atmosphere and stacked cast help to make Blood Ties a truly fantastic tale of crime and kinship in 1970’s New York.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★ ★
Ozzy Armstrong is a Stargate and Rocky superfan. Follow him on Twitter.
Originally published August 17, 2014. Updated April 13, 2018.
