So, this one kind of came out of left field. A 1970's set crime drama with a bang-up cast, co-written by James Gray, and directed by the French boyfriend in Danny Boyle's THE BEACH. Wicked. BLOOD TIES is a very compelling looking film, which may be trying too hard to be so, but I have to admire the effort. Starring Clive Owen, Billy Crudup, Mila Kunis, Marion Cotillard, Zoe Saldana, Noah Emmerich, Griffin Dunne, James Caan, and Matthias Schoenaerts, the pic centers on two brothers, one a cop (Crudup) and one a crook (Owen) who are embroiled in each others lives despite their best efforts not to be.
It looks like your standard fare crime pic, really, but there's something enticing about all of these actors with bad New Yawk accents yelling and swearing at each other. Throw in some car chases with '70's vehicles and old fashioned bell-bottom shoot outs and I could think of worse ways to spend an afternoon.
Check it out:
Here's the synopsis:
New York, 1974. Fifty year-old Chris has just been released on good behavior after several years in prison following a gangland murder. Waiting for him reluctantly outside the prison gates is his younger brother, Frank, a cop with a bright future. Chris and Frank have always been different, and their father, Leon, who’d raised them alone, seems strangely to prefer Chris – this, despite all his troubles.
Yet blood ties are the ones that bind. Frank, hoping that his brother has changed, is willing to give him a chance; he shares his home, finds him a job, and helps him reconnect with his children and his ex-wife, Monica. But Chris’ past quickly catches up to him, and his descent back into a life of crime becomes inevitable. For Frank, this descent proves to be the last in a long line of betrayals, and after his brother’s latest transgressions, he banishes him from his life
But it’s already too late; the brothers’ destiny will keep bounded, forever…
BLOOD TIES will be released sometime in 2013.
Yep, that's Marion Cotillard trying to look "plain" in BLOOD TIES. Nice try, Marion.