THE YARDS

Another tale of family living and operating on the wrong side of the law. "The Yards" of the title are the railway yards in Queens and James Caan is the crooked and corrupt operative who supplies the rolling stock, bribing the city officials in the process. Other various family members include Mark Wahlberg and Joaquin Phoenix, Ellen Burstyn and Faye Dunaway and Charlize Theron while singer Steve Lawrence turns up as one of the corrupt officials. When a strong-arm operation goes wrong, ending in a killing, things go downhill very quickly for everyone concerned.

On the surface, James Gray's movie might read like any other crime drama but this magnificent film is much more complex and intelligent and the relationships between the characters are beautifully delineated and totally believable, (even a fight sequence looks like the kind of fight that would happen in real life and not in the movies). There's a depth here rare in a film of this kind. Superbly written by Gray and co-scenarist Matt Reeves and brilliantly acted by everyone, (Wahlberg is particularly good), "The Yards" has all the makings of a bona-fide American classic and is certainly one of the best American films of the last 20 years and yet it wasn't really that big a success and today is virtually forgotten. Do yourself a favour and seek it out; you won't be disappointed.