Amid all these threats, Abel’s wife, Anna (Jessica Chastain), whose father used to own the company, wonders if her husband has the wherewithal to protect her and their three young daughters. Abel, rarely raising his voice or losing his composure, takes ostentatious pride in his honest, reasonable way of doing business. He doesn’t like guns or cheating or anything that would make him look like a gangster. Anna, a gangster’s daughter, takes a more traditional approach, which can make her appear to be the tougher and more pragmatic half of the couple.

Appearances can be deceiving, though. Not that there is any doubting Anna’s resolve. It is clear that she can be ruthless in defense of her family’s interests, but she is also limited by the patriarchal codes of her milieu. Her role is to offer support and an occasional nudge, but unlike most crime movies, which treat wives as static, marginal figures, “A Most Violent Year” is interested in the dynamic of Abel and Anna’s marriage, which unites, sometimes uneasily, the imperatives of business and the demands of love. The movie entwines two old sayings: behind every great man there is a great woman, and behind every great fortune there is a great crime.

Image Jessica Chastain and Oscar Isaac in J. C. Chandor’s film “A Most Violent Year.” Credit... Atsushi Nishijima/A24

But maybe Abel is not guilty of anything more serious than arrogance. He is named after the Old Testament’s first innocent victim, and as his torments increase he might be taken as the latest cinematic incarnation of Job. The intricacy of this movie’s plot reflects the complexity of its protagonist, who is a fascinating skein of ambiguities and contradictions brought forcefully to life by Mr. Isaac, an actor who has evolved from being someone to watch into someone you can’t take your eyes off. Abel is a man of action, fond of inspirational bromides and self-help business slogans, but Mr. Isaac, with his mournful eyes and slightly predatory smile, provides tantalizing glimpses of the divided soul behind the confident facade.

“A Most Violent Year” is Mr. Chandor’s third feature film — after “Margin Call” and “All Is Lost” — and it is larger in scale and wider in range than its predecessors, both of which are studies in confinement and compression. “Margin Call” took place almost entirely inside the offices of an investment firm on a single hectic night. “All Is Lost” was about a man alone on a boat in the middle of the Indian Ocean. Compared with them, “A Most Violent Year” is busy and crowded, full of incidental pleasures (including at least a half-dozen memorable bits of character acting, notably from Alessandro Nivola, Catalina Sandino Moreno, Peter Gerety and Jerry Adler) and piquant period details.