Word: gray
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...cigarette and then proceeds to chain-smoke for the duration of the interview. She smiles readily and laughs often, but something soft and vulnerable in her seems to clench reflexively - like a baby's fist around an adult's finger - when personal questions are raised. She exhales anxious gray smoke. She's not the interview type...
...James Gray...
...what, exactly, is The Yards trying to do or say? It's a thoughtful film, to be sure. Director James Gray also co-wrote the script, and he has stated that there is a very deliberate, tragic theme running through the story. Some critics have faulted the movie for being overly deterministic, a predestined tragedy that everyone sees coming. And it's true that you can't help but see Leo's fate better than he can. But isn't that part of the point? Throughout the movie, you constantly side with Leo. Poor Leo. Leo still has a thing...
...watch? No way. There are some scenes in which the suspense is almost unbearable-for example, Leo lurking behind hospital curtains, waiting for the right moment to kill a witness, accompanied by the sound of blood rushing through his head. The room has an eerie glow, thanks to Gray's experimentation with the camera film. (In order to get the darker, more subtle "look" of the movie, the film was underexposed to the point where it began to break down.) The movie is full of moments like that-moments in which the characters unwillingly play out the consequences circumstances beyond...
...face. It seems silly to read about, but it works. Much the same thing goes for the rest of the cast. Charlize Theron, ever the chameleon, plays the languid, dark-haired Erika; Faye Dunaway and James Caan are her mother and stepfather. Their acting efforts are helped immensely by Gray's direction. Gray paints every scene in order to give his crew a better idea of his visual style, and he has a definite vision of what the film should be all about, both in terms of plot and aesthetics. The Yards does have a certain edgy, rough, film-school...