Lumet Lite

Eric Liebowitz

A couple of young toughs (Mark Wahlberg and Joaquin Phoenix) take their talents to the tracks

Details

Screenplay by James Gray and Matt Reeves

Related Content

• Sean "Diddy" Combs and Mark Wahlberg Launch AQUAHydrate, Judd Apatow Not Impressed
  February 28, 2013
• Broken City: Russell Crowe Seems Miserable to Be Here
  January 17, 2013
• Someday This Pain Will Be Useful to You: Flat, Trite Pile of Serene Aphorisms
  October 4, 2012
• "Pain & Gain" Writer Pete Collins' 15 Minutes of Fame Have Arrived
  April 25, 2013
• Why You Have to See The Master in 70mm
  September 20, 2012

More About

• Sidney Lumet
• James Gray
• James Caan
• Movie Stars
• Celebrity News

By commercial necessity, I suppose, The Yards also contains a touch of frustrated romance. Leo has a thing for Willie's sultry girlfriend, Erica (Charlize Theron), despite the fact that she's apparently his first cousin. When Leo becomes a fugitive, it's Erica who stands by him, and while that's serviceable character development, the entire triangle seems a bit artificial. Theron is fine but the moviemakers might have been better off giving more screen time to Dunaway (Big Frank's deluded wife) and Burstyn (Leo's beleaguered mother), both of whom come across as authentic blue-collar Queens strivers.

For Caan's shtick alone The Yards is worthwhile, but we also may be witnessing the emergence, in Gray, of a young filmmaker who's just beginning to find the range. The self-consciousness of Little Odessa (all about Russian mobsters in Brighton Beach) has now given way to inspired mimicry, and we likely can expect more assurance and individuality next time around. For now glory in a terrific cast playing a Lumet-inspired tune straight off the streets of the Big Apple.