'Black Rabbit' review: A dandy thriller you'll eat up

WHAT IT'S ABOUT Jake Friedkin (Jude Law) has finally realized his dream of turning Black Rabbit into the hottest restaurant in New York City. Then cometh the fall: His brother Vince (Jason Bateman) returns home from the West Coast to mess everything up. Both brothers, in fact, launched the Black Rabbit but Vince had to skip town because he'd amassed huge gambling debts. Now that he's back, his bookie, Joe Mancuso ("CODA" Oscar winner Troy Kotsur), intends to collect.

Until Vince, like a black shadow, finds his way back, everything does seem to be going well. Jake has amassed some influencers, like Wes (Sope Dirisu "Gangs of London"), to lure the crowds, and a first-rate head chef, Roxie (Amaka Okafor), too. But this eight-parter opens with a violent robbery, so maybe things aren't going so well after all at the Black Rabbit. (Scenes there were shot at the gorgeous old Bridge Cafe on Water Street, which had to shut down after Superstorm Sandy in 2012.)

Both Bateman and his "Ozark" co-star Laura Linney directed several episodes.

MY SAY Two brothers. One's a screwup, the other devoted to the screwup. A three star Manhattan restaurant linking them both.

These sound like the ingredients of one prominent show ("The Bear"), and with Bateman aboard, a soupcon of another ("Ozark").

But forget all that. Any resemblances — or shared ingredients — are misleading. The better comparison here might be "Billions," except no one has a billion, or a million, or even a thousand. The absence of money drives the action, the motives and the whole wide world that's hemmed in by an indifferent, or at least, seen-it-all, Manhattan. Almost everyone's on the make or has a pitch to anyone gullible enough to swallow it — some can't-miss spiel that promises to ultimately yield those millions, or (at least in a pinch) those thousands. 

Neither Vince nor Jake has that pitch down perfectly, however, and it's usually delivered with an edge of desperation or hint of flop sweat because they feel the walls, or specifically the bad guys, closing in. They're both sad people, really, who can't seem to grasp why their own brand of family dynamics is so self-destructive. You the viewer are simply left to wonder: What made these guys such palookas?

They're not complete palookas, even if they are from Palookaville (somewhere in northern New Jersey). But they do have a habit of self-inflicting wounds. They recover quickly, then move on, which makes them resourceful, or at least intriguing palookas. What made Vince and Jake who they are? There's a compelling, complicated answer somewhere deep inside this question. Mostly, there's an excellent series.

"Black Rabbit" is a character study that just about anyone with a brother will intuitively grasp. What makes brothers from the same mother so different? What mysteries of human DNA lead to (well) Vince, yet also to Jake? Who knows? Certainly not Jake or Vince. Addiction issues may exacerbate these differences because Vince is an addict (gambling, drugs, name your poison). But Jake is an addict, too. "What's Jake addicted to?" asks Roxie. Her obviously wise colleague responds: "His brother."

New York City is part of this character study, too. Occasionally shot from hip level, or even knee level, the camera's eye drifts upward — those iconic towers rising overhead to tempt all the strivers down at street level. Jake and Vince are a pair of classic strivers who hum "New York, New York" in their sleep. But if they can't make it there, then where? They've spent a lifetime asking themselves the same thing.

BOTTOM LINE Well-crafted thriller, and a reminder of just how good an actor — and director — Bateman is.