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James Gray, We Own The Night

by Chris Flippo
10/07/2007

James Gray's We Own The Night feels like the first draft of what could become a great movie. All the ingredients are here for something pretty remarkable, but the film is not as polished or as developed as some of the better entries in the crime genre. If the movie had provided us with a fresh approach to the mayhem, then the creators just might have had an exceptional film on their hands.

We Own The Night is the story of two brothers with two very different ethical codes. One, Bobby Green (Joaquin Phoenix), owns a night club that houses its share of sinister characters. The other, Joseph Grusinsky (Mark Wahlberg), is a by-the-book cop who has just graduated top of his class from the police academy. When they discover that a dangerous Russian mafioso named Vadim Nezhinski (Alex Veadov) frequents the club, Bobby must trade in his lifestyle and become an informer.

This premise could have yielded a decent film, had it examined the lives of the characters and provided something new for these familiar archetypes to do. However, We Own The Night left me with a sense of deja vu. There is really nothing new to see here. The two hours fly by pretty fast, but then again, the film is forgotten in just about that time.

The acting here is generally solid, but everyone is playing roles that they have done far better in other films. Joaquin Phoenix is doing his usual rebel-with-a-good-heart routine. Also, as painful as this is to write, Robert Duvall looks downright bored in his typical father figure role.

Even Mark Wahlberg, fresh from an Oscar nomination, is again playing a toughened inner-city cop, much like he did in last year's The Departed. A colleague of mine summed it up best after the screening when he asked, "Is Marky Mark playing a cop again?" These are all great actors, some of the best of their respective generations. In fact, they're so good I want to see them challenged a bit more.

I am not saying an actor should play against type all the time. In the upcoming No Country For Old Men, Tommy Lee Jones provided some of his best work as an aging policeman, a role he has played numerous times. However, there should be substance beneath the archetypes. If We Own The Night had provided our principle actors with just a little bit more to work with, then some of the cliched plotting might have been forgivable.

As it stands, Gray's latest film suffers from being underdeveloped. We learn that the Bobby character is a rebel and has done everything in his power to separate himself from his by-the-books family. Themes like this could have made for some interesting cinema, but we never understand why Bobby turned into such a wild child or why his brother is so straight-laced. This lack of development is more for the convenience of the screenwriter than it is for the logical progression of the narrative.

Which brings me to the main problem with the film: it all just seems too written. There are so many aspects of this movie that come across as contrived. When one of our principle characters dies, it feels less like tragedy and more like an excuse for our lead to do some soul-searching. It's a random act of violence that is anything but random because the film needs it be there for its final act to commence. What we are presented with in We Own The Night are not scenes so much as note cards on a screenwriter's desk.

However, credit must be given where it is due. James Gray does a good job of building genuine suspense. A sequence where Bobby goes undercover to inform on Vadim's drug operation had me so invested I was leaning forward in my chair. Vadim may be our villain, but Gray goes out of his way to show that he is not a fool. This sequence stands out because there is always great enjoyment to be had when a film's central villain just may be smarter than our protagonist. This makes Vadim just a little bit more unpredictable and dangerous.

We Own The Night is an interesting example of what can happen when filmmakers try to elevate genre material for the critical crowd. As The Brave One showed us a few weeks ago, this can be a very tricky business. Sometimes, when the writing is not sharp enough, it comes across as a B movie with a bigger budget and a better cast. As it stands, the film is a very-awkward hybrid of an action movie and a prestige picture.

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