Yards, The

San Francisco Examiner G. Allen Johnson

Classic in feel and loaded with sumptuous performances.

Film.com Peter Brunette

Don't be misled by claims that you've seen this one already. You haven't, and you should.

Los Angeles Times Kevin Thomas

So strong and secure in its remorseless movement that you buy into what's happening, its people so firmly gripped in the vise of fate and their own character flaws.

Mr. Showbiz Michael Atkinson

May not have enough story to sustain its narrative momentum, but Gray just might be our best shot at a new Coppola.

Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy

A work of incompleteness, might-have-beens and moral subtleties befitting a filmmaker named Gray.

Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt

The cast is just right for this mini-"Godfather" yarn, and Gray's filmmaking is generally on target even if it does tend to dawdle along the way.

New York Post Jonathan Foreman

Visually accomplished and wonderfully acted.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

It's that ambiguity that makes the film interesting.

Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington

Shines whenever we see the performances of Phoenix and Caan.

The New York Times Stephen Holden

For all its incongruities, The Yards is a serious film that strives for a moral complexity and a textural density rarely found in contemporary dramas.

TV Guide Maitland McDonagh

Gray doesn't condescend to his outer-borough characters and elicits pitch-perfect performances from his ensemble cast.

Slate David Edelstein

Most haunting of all is Caan, who has never given a performance this layered.

Village Voice Dennis Lim

Gray's brand of film-buffery manifests itself, simply and irresistibly, as ardent, uncynical movie love.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold

It almost completely falls apart in a tortuous third act and ultimately leaves us feeling strangely empty and dissatisfied.

Philadelphia Inquirer Desmond Ryan

Instead of the usual contrast of black and white, The Yards offers a vivid palette of grays, and it's a far more rewarding color scheme for a movie.

New York Daily News Jami Bernard

With one exception (hint: Faye Dunaway), the actors seem remarkably at home in their milieu.

Boston Globe Jay Carr

By the end, we're left with a feeling of depletion rather than resolution, which may have been Gray's intention.

Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman

Won't startle or surprise you but will satisfy your need to see good actors at work.

Baltimore Sun Chris Kaltenbach

Caan is so good as a man who watches helplessly as everything he's worked for crumbles around him, that he steals the picture from both Wahlberg and Phoenix, the ostensible stars.

Dallas Observer Bill Gallo

For Caan's shtick alone, The Yards is worthwhile, but we may also be witnessing the emergence, in Gray, of a young filmmaker who's just starting to find the range.

LA Weekly Manohla Dargis

There's so much that's right in it that its blunders are all the more frustrating.

Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez

The only thing the movie lacks is a pulse.

Variety Todd McCarthy

Entombs its characters so thoroughly in a prison of palpably predestined tragedy that one knows from the outset that the very worst that can happen most certainly will.

Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum

A drama about corruption in the city's transit system that's not only hard boiled but also dipped in egg batter dialogue and deep fried.

San Francisco Chronicle Bob Graham

Keeps sinking into its own grimness.

Film.com Robert Horton

A collection of movie situations, recognizable from the films of Coppola and Scorsese, with a less obvious debt to Kazan.

Washington Post Desson Thomson

A great director's losing battle against a goofy script.

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

Self-importance sinks this one like a stone.

Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov

Gray's direction is a languid thing, moving at roughly the speed of a maimed snail, and the cast never really gels.

Time Richard Corliss

So muted it disappears from your view even before it recedes from your memory.

Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum

One more sluggish, artfully framed thriller with Rembrandt lighting set in a New York borough--a kind of picture that's awfully hard to do in a fresh manner.