James Gray Talks About The Yards
Oct. 18 -- James Gray knows New York. Knows not only of the shiny Fifth Avenue New York, but also of the gritty, dirt-under-the-fingernails New York.
The tracks less traveled by — and where Gray grew up, Queens.
Sunnyside, Queens to be exact is where the indie film director takes his second film The Yards. The story follows Leo Handler, (Mark Wahlberg), a man who just got out of prison after taking the fall for a group of friends. He comes home, only wanting to become a “productive member of society.”
However, instead of training to become a mechanic like his uncle recommended (James Caan), he pairs up with his old friend Willie Guiterrez (Joaquin Phoenix) and quickly falls into bad straits. It is then that Leo finds himself drawn into a circle of corruption, ultimately tied to one of the most influential families in New York — his own.
“The work gets more and more personal as it goes on,” Gray said. “Because I can’t really be simpatico with somebody who’s on a space station right now.”
Theme, Revisited
Torn between being loyal to his family and friend Willie, and also being pinned to a crime that could land him in prison for life, Leo realizes that he has to turn in his family, before they do him in.
The theme of boy-coming-out-of-prison-and-wants-to-do-good isn’t a new theme for Gray. His previous endeavor, Little Odessa, set in the Brighton Beach Russian community of Brooklyn, also dealt with the same issue: the lead character fell in with bad company, despite every effort to keep himself out of trouble.
Coincidence? Or perhaps a theme Gray revisits knowing that he always longed for a merry homecoming when he returned home from University of Southern California in Los Angeles-but never got one.
“When I was 18 years old, and I went away to college, before I left, I had a mother, a father and a brother all living under the same roof,” he said. “Within a matter of three months, my brother moved out, and my mother died. It was traumatic for my father, and emotional time for all of us.”
