Blood Ties, 2014.
Directed by Guillaume Canet.
Starring Clive Owen, Marion Cotillard, Billy Crudup, Mila Kunis, Zoe Saldana, Noah Emmerich, John Ventimiglia, Griffin Dunne, Lili Taylor and James Caan.
SYNOPSIS:
Two brothers – one a cop, the other a con – discover that not everything is black and white when it comes to family loyalty.
Coming from the same place as Goodfellas and Carlito’s Way, Blood Ties is a crime drama set against the backdrop of 1970s New York and centres around the relationship between brothers Chris and Frank Pierzynski. Chris (Clive Owen) has served nine years for murder when he is released on the condition that he can get a job and go straight. His younger brother Frank (Billy Crudup) is a detective in the NYPD and sets him up with a job and a place to live but old habits die hard and Chris returns to his old ways to make ends meet. Meanwhile Frank is trying to make a life with the wife of a criminal he has just put away and trying to keep his brother’s reputation from affecting his job, but each brother finds himself getting torn between his loyalties to his chosen profession and to each other.
A remake of 2008 French thriller Rivals (a.k.a. Les liens du sang) by Jacques Maillot, adaptated from the French novel Deux frères: flic & truand by Bruno and Michel Papet, and playing with themes of relationships and how roles can be reversed by simple actions, Blood Ties is one of the most authentically ’70s films to have come out since… probably since the ’70s, to be honest. Apart from a crisp and clear picture, along with some excellent camera work, there is very little to suggest that this is a modern crime thriller and could easily be played alongside Dirty Harry or The French Connection if you were having a ’70s movie marathon. New York was almost a character in itself during that era and the sense of place and time is brilliantly realised, with cars, clothes and just the genral attitude totally authentic.
The cast is also very strong and the old school vibe is helped along by some crime drama veterans, most notably James Caan as Frank and Chris’ father Leon, who is dying and hoping for his two sons to get along. Lili Taylor appears as the boys’ sister Marie and there are plenty of faces that you’ll point at and say “Oh, it’s that guy” (John Ventimiglia, Griffin Dunne, Noah Emmerich and Domenick Lombardozzi all fit that description). The only question mark is Clive Owen, who has the look and the physical mannerisms for the role but undoes most of that good whenever he opens his mouth, the trouble being that his American accent is as charismatic and convincing as his normal British one. It’s an odd casting choice for a New York gangster movie, especially when there are so many other known actors that could easily have played that role, but his trade-offs with Billy Crudup just about save him as they are pretty convincing as feuding brothers.
It’s a fairly straightforward plot and doesn’t break any new ground but the sense of style, tight direction and the way that the roles of the brothers become reversed as the film goes on are as gripping and tense as a lot of the established gangster classics. Okay, it’s not The Godfather or Goodfellas in terms of scale and it does borrow a few tricks from other places – a climactic chase through Grand Central Station? Somebody has been watching Carlito’s Way – but sometimes a greatest hits can be more satisfying than unknown new material and Blood Ties offers you everything that you like about gritty crime thrillers from decades ago but may not have seen in a new film for some time.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★ ★
Chris Ward
Originally published October 20, 2014. Updated April 13, 2018.
