Corruption, betrayal, guilt—these are the engines that run the world, at least the world as envisioned by writer-director James Gray. His second film, The Yards, is set on a broader urban stage than his debut, 1994's Little Odessa (about a hit man's domestic crisis), but its view of human nature is just as . . . well, not so much narrow as despairingly focused. The picture begins with Leo Handler (a hauntedly quiet Mark Wahlberg) returning home from a brief prison stint. Welcoming him are his long-suffering mom (Ellen Burstyn), disapproving aunt (Faye Dunaway), oddly affectionate cousin, Erica (Charlize Theron), and overly ebullient best friend, Willie (Joaquin Phoenix). Willie wants to set Leo up with a job by his side at the subway-train-repair yards run by Leo's new uncle, Frank (James Caan). Frank's not sure if Leo, as an ex-con, should be doing exactly the same sort of shady work as Willie; Willie prevails, things go wrong, and a test of loyalty ensues. Not for the first time, it turns out, for Willie was involved with the trouble that put Leo in prison. Complicating matters is the fact that Willie and Erica are contemplating marriage.

Gray's straightforward storytelling is a tonic at a time when most urban dramas seem precision-engineered to induce migraines. His and coscreenwriter Matt Reeves's character writing is superb; Uncle Frank, in particular, is a figure of almost Shakespearean complexity, trying to remain personally honorable while conducting a dirty business, and coming to the painful realization that he simply can't do both. And Gray's actors do full honor to his vision—Caan, in particular, is remarkable. The problem here, ultimately, is the story itself, which devolves into an overly familiar cross between At Close Range and City Hall. That The Yards is so solid in every other respect renders this narrative weakness, finally, all the more disappointing.