AFI Fest kicks off with a 'Most Violent' Chastain

HOLLYWOOD — It's hard to compete with Jessica Chastain's stamina this fall.

The actress has flown around the world in the last 10 days while promoting Interstellar, hopscotching from Los Angeles to London to New York to Washington, D.C. On Thursday night she popped up in Hollywood at the AFI Film Festival, where her buzzy new crime film, A Most Violent Year, held court on opening night.

"It's my first time at the festival," said Chastain at the film's after-party, surrounded by her co-stars, Oscar Isaac (a friend from Juilliard), David Oyelowo and director J.C. Chandor (Margin Call, All Is Lost).

A Most Violent Year screened in the Dolby Theater (where the Oscars are held), a first for AFI Fest, which will also debut Paul Thomas Anderson's Inherent Vice on Saturday. "The last time I was in this room I was sitting right there, and I lost to Woody Allen," said Chandor on the stage, to laughter. "So let's hope it goes a little better tonight."

The smoldering drama takes place in crime-ridden New York City in 1981, with Isaac and Chastain playing Abel and Anna, a couple trying to keep their heating-oil empire afloat as their trucks are repeatedly robbed making deliveries. While Abel tries to run an honest shop, chilling mob tactics are in Anna's DNA.

"What I loved so much about the character is that she constantly wants to be the little lady of the house and her husband is her king, but then she immediately emasculates him," said Chastain, who delivers some of the most powerful (and funny lines) of her career in the film. "She always goes back to propping him up and knocking him down. And she's smart."

The AFI Fest screening, presented by Audi, was the first showing of A Most Violent Year for press and fans alike, and it immediately began to gain praise.

The Wrap's Alonso Duraide called Chastain's portrayal "ferocious and driven," and The Hollywood Reporter showered praise on Isaac. "Good as he was in Inside Llewyn Davis last year, Isaac really breaks through with this performance, which, as indicated, almost uncannily recalls Al Pacino's simmeringly low-key star-making turns in the Godfather films," wrote critic Todd McCarthy.

A Most Violent Year opens in limited release on Dec. 31.