The Yards

This cast, director and subject matter should have yielded more powerful results, and indeed the heavy-hitters are all employed more or less perfectly; the problem is in the screenplay, which takes fertile material and almost fatally bungles it by assigning its characters unbelievable motivations, and trying to contrive ethical conflicts rather than escalating to them naturally (surely there were other options before sending an unseasoned newbie to put a hit on a cop!) It turns the film into a tedious melodrama, and negates fine work from Phoenix, Theron and Caan, who really doesn’t get enough appreciation for the way he could turn up in a potentially thankless role and bulldoze his way to greatness during the 2000s. Might not have helped that I saw the vastly superior WE OWN THE NIGHT first, which covers similar material in a more subtle, complex (and believable) way.