Blood Ties

Blood Ties (from Weird and Wonderful II: Fifty More Cult Films by George Hughes, available from www.freefall-productions.com) 

2013 / US-France / 127 minutes

“It’s not our best attribute, I know that.”

Director: Guillaume Canet / Screenplay: James Gray & Guillaume Canet, based on the novel Deux Freres by Bruno Papet & Michel Papet / Director of Photography: Christophe Offenstein / Music: Yodelice / Production: Alain Attal, Guillaume Canet, John Lesher, Hugo Selignac and Christopher Woodrow for Tresor Films / Cast: Clive Owen (Chris Pierzynski), Billy Crudup (Frank Pierzynski), Marion Cotillard (Monica D’Amato), Mila Kunis (Natalie), Zoe Saldana (Vanessa), James Caan (Leon Pierzynski), Lili Taylor (Marie Pierzynski), Domenick Lombardozzi (Mike), Matthias Schoenaerts (Anthony Scarfo), Griffin Dunne (McNally), Jamie Hector (Nick), Olek Krupa (Tommy).

New York City, 1974. Chris Pierzynski (Clive Owen) is released from prison after serving twelve years. He’s reunited with his father, Leon (James Caan), sister, Marie (Lili Taylor) and brother, Frank (Billy Crudup). While all three are happy to see Chris again, Frank has grave reservations, having become an NYPD detective while Chris was inside.

   Moving in with his brother, Chris at first attempts to rebuild his life and go straight. He visits his children and their mother, Monica (Marion Cotillard), gets a legitimate job and meets a new, younger girlfriend, Natalie (Mila Kunis). However, Frank and his colleagues suspect that Chris is still involved with the criminal underworld and when Chris’s business venture with his old friend Mike (Domenick Lombardozzi) literally goes up in smoke, he returns fully to his old ways.

   After Frank lets him escape a crime scene, Chris becomes aware that Anthony Scarfo (Matthias Schoenaerts), a criminal with a grudge against his brother, plans to kill Frank. With the police (including Frank) closing in on him, Chris must now chose between saving himself and his brother…

   The second film based on the French novel, Deux Freres by Bruno Papet and Michel Papet, Blood Ties was devised by writer / director Guillaume Canet, who had acted in the earlier version, Les Liens du Sang (2008), in the part equivalent to Frank. Having always imagined the story in ’70’s New York, Canet sought to translate it to that time and place for his English language directorial debut.

   An unusual French / US co- production, Canet secured a large budget for the project but, due to funding agreements, had to employ a certain percentage of fellow Europeans among his cast and crew. As a result, the Belgian Schoenaerts was cast as NYC heavy Scarfo and Canet’s very French girlfriend Marion Cotillard took the part of the Italian American Monica. Monica switches from English to Italian a couple of times in the film and, although Cotillard can speak Italian, she still sounds extremely French (Asia Argento has the same problem the other way round).

   Further problems were encountered when Canet and his crew had to recreate a period accurate New York in the very different modern day city, leading to them having to dump skips of rubbish in the streets they were shooting on to make them look sufficiently grimy. All of this proved incredibly expensive (by 2012, very few American productions supposedly set in NYC actually bothered going there to film anymore due to the ludicrous expense of doing so (legally, at least) compared to much cheaper substitute locations) but in characteristic auteur style, Canet persisted with his vision.

   The incredible period detail (costumes, music and a wealth of vintage cars) all make Blood Ties feel incredibly authentic and even the characters- most of whom are not particularly likable- feel like products of the era depicted rather than of their depiction (something I’d say only another European outsider, Sergio Leone, had ever really achieved in New York before with 1984’s Once Upon a Time in America).

   Unfortunately, despite all of its impressive production values and even more impressive cast (admittedly, Kunis and Zoe Saldana don’t get much to do), Blood Ties only got a limited US release and didn’t get anywhere near recouping its ballooning costs, which is both extremely depressing and extremely worrying for such a strong film.

   The trouble was, American reviewers (even those usually onside even when audiences aren’t) weren’t particularly kind either. Having watched the film with people from several different countries since its belated (and also very limited) UK release in 2014, I think the main issue is that, for all the period and location accuracy, the writing and characters still feel very European.

   And with US audiences now used to much clearer cut, “Black and White” morality in their cinema (if not their TV, which has gone in the opposite direction) than they were in the actual 1970’s, a character like Chris Pierzynski was never going to go down well. Even for a “Villain Protagonist”, a lot of his actions are well beyond the pale but it’s one of Owen’s best performances of recent years and the film as a whole is an exceptional piece of work well worth giving (another) chance.