How’s this for an unnecessary film? The Yards is a lifeless
combination of so many good movies, and not even a solid cast, made out of equal parts
young stars and Hollywood legends, can’t make much of it. Almost every shot reminds
us that we’ve seen that before, but as a part of a much better whole. It is a gritty story about a
young offender Leo Handler (Wahlberg), who spent some time behind the bars and now wants
to clean up his act. His Uncle Frank (Caan) offers him a job in the New York City subway
yards, but instead he chooses to hang around with his friend Willie Guitierrez (Phoenix).
He took the fall for Willie before, and Willie wants to give him a chance for a quick
buck, which inevitably pulls Leo back in the familiar world of corruption, blackmail and
even murder. He quickly becomes a target of both the police and a powerful mob family, but
he will somehow manage to develop a romance with Willie’s fiancee Erica (Theron) and
care for his mother (Ellen Burstyn). He finally decides to take everything he knows out in
the open, setting the stage for a bittersweet ending…
The Yards is the
case of a movie that is worth less than the sum of its performances. Joaquin Phoenix is
sleazy enough as a young apprentice to a big boss, and James Caan uses only a part of his
Godfather mob persona to portray that big boss. Charlize Theron still radiates under heavy
makeup and displays great maturity in choosing her roles. Erica is not a glamorous beauty
we think of when we think of Theron, but is an interesting supporting character. Mark
Wahlberg is a fine actor, although not good enough to lead the movie all by his lonesome.
It is evident that he invested a lot of effort to make the most out of his character, a
blue-collar youngster trying to support his widowed mother. After the blockbusters
"Three Kings" and "The Perfect Storm" he may have wanted to try
something less sparkling.
Young director James
Gray ("Little Odessa") obviously wanted to illustrate the dark underworld of
unions and borough officials, and most of The Yards is shot in gray and green tones, in
interiors or by night. The atmosphere, however, becomes self-indulgent, almost
self-sufficient, and since there is no strong, determined characters, the story appears
irrelevant, and doesn’t have the power to hold the attention of the viewer.