Blood Ties Blu-ray Review
Thicker than slaughter?
Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman, June 21, 2014
The marketing hype surrounding
Blood Ties suggest it's an "edge of your seat thriller", a description that will
probably only ring true if you consider roiling family dysfunction and star-crossed love affairs "thrilling". Co-writer and
director Guillaume Canet made some waves on this side of the pond with his take on Hitchcockian suspense with the
generally quite effective
Tell No One,
and interestingly actually starred in the original French version of this film, a 2009 Jacques Maillot effort entitled
Les
Liens du Sang. Despite running quite a bit longer than its progenitor,
Blood Ties has an oddly lurching
quality to it which suggests some salient information may have been left on the cutting room floor, which in turn begs
the question, in favor of what? For an ostensible "thriller",
Blood Ties is curiously lacking in either suspense or
action, and instead tends to play out like a neo-modern reinterpretation of those hoary old Warner Brothers films where
two brothers or friends grow up on opposite sides of the law. The film is nonetheless notable for a nicely rumpled and
occasionally vicious star turn by Clive Owen as recently released murder convict Chris Pierzynski, a guy who seems to
have noble intentions at least some of the time, but whose life story has spiraled out of control and continues to dribble
away down the drain as the film progresses. Chris is paroled into the care of his distant and curt brother Frank (Billy
Crudup), a New York City cop who alternates between scowling at Chris and tentatively attempting to help him forge a
new life outside of the joint.
Blood Ties takes place in a somewhat squalid mid-seventies timeframe, and while
there's no outright allusion to American made cop films set in this same period (
The French Connection,
Serpico), in some ways the film's most successful element is its
recreation of an era, one which might be seen as a sort of smarmy underbelly of a somewhat similar but flashier
production design seen in
American
Hustle.
Blood Ties begins with an adrenaline pumping sequence that sees a bunch of New York City cops bursting into
some sort of den of iniquity, immediately engaging in a nasty and bloody gunfight that nonetheless doesn't bring all of
the
intended targets to justice, as evidently some bad guys escape out a bathroom window. One of the unfortunates who
didn't manage to get out is laconic but obviously intense ex-convict Anthony Scarfo (Matthias Schoenaerts), whose
girlfriend Vanessa (Zoe Saldana) exchanges some stolen glances with Frank during the arrest. Even Frank's partner
notices, and asks Frank if there's some history between the two.
The film then segues to what is obviously a rather awkward family reunion, as Frank and sister Marie (Lili Taylor) pick up
Chris from the penitentiary. Marie has unabashed affection for Chris, but it's apparent that there's some simmering
tension between the two brothers, and it's here that
Blood Ties begins to stumble a bit. There's a palpable
distance between Chris and Frank, as portrayed by Owen and Crudup, but there's very little of any palpable family bond
between them, something that tends to undercut the shifting allegiances and conflicts each of the two brothers is
supposed to feel as various events unfold. Aside from their obvious physical differences, the two actors often appear to
be acting in different universes, and not one of the supposed Pierzynski family's accents match each other,
further debilitating an already wobbly premise. This extends even to the usually reliable James Caan, who is on hand as
the Pierzynski
pater familias, a crusty elder who's down to one lung due to a lifetime of smoking, but who
nonetheless urges his kids to drop him off at a convenience mart once he's out of the hospital so that he can buy more
cigarettes.
Adding into the general melodrama of two siblings on opposite sides of the law are two subplots involving the brothers'
romantic escapades. It does in fact turn out that there's history between Vanessa and Frank, and Frank is quick to put
the moves on Vanessa after Anthony is temporarily jailed on a gun charge. Meanwhile, Chris actually tries to play it
straight, getting a job as a janitor at a body shop where he meets the slightly neurotic Natalie (Mila Kunis), slowly
forging a relationship with her. Chris is also dealing with his drug addicted prostitute wife Monica (Marion Cotillard), just
in case all of the foregoing doesn't quite fill the soap operatic fuel tank for some viewers.
The odd thing about
Blood Ties is that there's both too much and too little to ever generate appropriate
momentum. The film is virtually stuffed to the gills with interlocking characters and plot threads, so much so that the film
feels like a carnival ride at times as it careens from relationship to relationship, with virtually none of them being healthy.
But on the flip side, there's some really unhelpful editing and screenwriting here that tends to make the viewer infer
information rather than providing it outright. Early in the film, there's a jump cut that suddenly has Chris in Natalie's
apartment, with absolutely no preparation given, and it takes a while for the viewer to realize that their relationship has
obviously deepened. This is just one example out of many where either the original screenplay was lacking or
information was deemed irrelevant or unimportant and was simply discarded somewhere in the editing process.
What remains is a sometimes involving piece that works better as a family drama than as a thriller. Without giving away
too many plot details, Chris' attempts to go straight don't work as planned, and Frank has to decide how involved he
wants to be with Chris' shenanigans. All sorts of drama unfolds involving the various love relationships, especially once
Anthony Scarfo gets wind of Frank and Vanessa's affair, and things catapult to a fairly predictable conclusion, albeit with
one or two set pieces providing incremental excitement along the way (it must be stated that it's just a little funny to
see car chases around Manhattan with such clunky, huge mid-seventies sedans). One of the best things about this film
is Clive
Owens' performance, even if his accent is highly variable. His Chris is a wounded soldier struggling to keep his head
above the rapids. Owens manages to capture both Chris' vulnerability and his nastier disposition, and in so doing gives
Blood Ties some desperately needed energy.
Note: For a somewhat more positive take on
Blood Ties, see Brian Orndorf's
theatrical review.
Blood Ties: Other Editions
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