Review of The Yards on Filmviews.net
Year2000 ReviewerChris Docker
The Yards, which has been well-received by many critics, is fairly boring. There were titters as the end credits started. One woman in front of exclaimed sarcastically, "Well, I was glued to my seat through every minute of that!" The Yards is a gangster movie set in the Bronx of yesteryear that attempts the "realism" mode of, say, Goodfellas, but never quite manages to rise to the exceptional as Scorsese did. The lighting in most of the indoor scenes is very poor. For a while one wants to believe it is deliberate, especially as there are a few nice photographic images (the opening scene of flickering lights, suddenly revealing their context as the camera pulls out of a tunnel with the speeding train). But there is no hidden meaning - after a while it just reeks of low budget or ineptitude. Which is a shame. The acting is good (Charlize Theron particularly is a pleasant surprise) but nothing of a standard to lift this rather drab film out of itself. The unexceptional script conspires with the lack of pace and the viewer is left with the feeling that there should have been something more to justify sitting in the cinema for two hours. Young intelligent petty criminal tries to make good when he comes out of prison, but gets bogged down by the mob. Story nothing special. The most remarkable thing was Howard Shore's brilliant score, that creates tension occasionally out of practically nothing. Could have been a nice, moody thriller - if only it had that special something.
Rating: 4/10;