James
Gray wrote the harrowing LITTLE ODESSA
a few years back, so I went into THE YARDS
with unrealistically high expectations
that may be the reason I’m only giving
this two stars.
Mark
Wahlberg is Leo Handler, a small-timer
who’s just out on parole. He comes back
to a welcome-home party at his mom’s (Burstyn)
place, full of family and friends. There
are assorted cousins and neighbors. There’s
his mom’s sister, Kitty (Dunaway). There’s
her daughter, Erica (Theron), with whom,
apparently, Leo has some murky history.
There’s her boyfriend, his old running
buddy, Willie (Phoenix). And there’s his
new parole officer, who reminds him to
get a job, pronto.
Next
day finds Leo in the offices of Aunt Kitty’s
husband, his step-uncle (Caan), who heads
a company that has city (we assume NYC)
contracts for subway cars. Instead of
honest gainful employment that Uncle Frank
tries to steer him toward, Leo starts
riding along with Willie, Uncle Frank’s
"fixer." This gives the screenwriters
the opportunity to show us cynical scenes
of modern-day crime, where the stealing
is done with pens instead of with guns
and knives. Eventually, though, real weapons
come out, events spiral out of control,
and Leo finds himself a murder suspect.
Soon enough, the family decides Leo poses
a threat to their continued operations,
and he’s not just on the run from the
cops, he’s running and hiding from everyone.
There
are some nice touches, including the type
of realistic fight scene I’ve always wanted
to see in a movie — one where the combatants
tug at each other’s clothes, roll around
a lot, only throw a couple of punches,
and get up winded at the end. There’s
also an intermittent power outage situation
in the city, never explained, but interesting
for the times in the story when it crops
up.
Writer-director
Gray returns to his theme of ethnic American
families-in- crime and also continues
his willingness to kill off major characters.
This story doesn’t pack the emotional
punch of LITTLE ODESSA, though it does
occasionally reach the heights in the
tragic character of Willie, who has just
that combination of weakness and strength
that Joaquin Phoenix (think GLADIATOR)
seems particularly suited for. Phoenix’s
tough guy desperately seeking approval
is a fine performance. Charlize Theron,
on the other hand, seemed content to let
her eye makeup do the acting for her.
I’ve
read that, basically, most criminals are
just plain dumb, and to his credit, Wahlberg
plays Leo as none too bright. It’s nice
to see so many older actors employed here
—Dunaway, Caan, Tony Musante, a pleasingly
cheesy Steve Lawrence, and woman of the
month Ellen Burstyn (whose films THE EXORCIST
and REQUIEM FOR A DREAM are also on screens
now) — but it’s not enough reason to see
the movie.
—Roxanne
Bogucka
-
While we would never encourage anyone
to destroy a video...
