I'm not so delusional as to expect every movie to be a ground breaking experience, but when a movie is as workman-like as
We Own the Night, I tend to lose interest quickly. Though far from a bad movie, this is such a by-the-book piece of work that it's hard to get excited about anything happening on the screen. Not that we haven't seen it all before, and even quite recently. The film carries heavy shades of recent crime thrillers such as
The Departed and
Eastern Promises, only not as energetic or as engaging. It certainly doesn't help that it often comes across as being smaller in scale than the films it hopes to emulate, often coming across as a made for TV crime thriller with four-letter words thrown in the dialogue.
Set in Brooklyn in 1988, the story centers on Bobby Green (Joaquin Phoenix), a rising young nightclub owner who is living the fast life of money, women, sex, and drugs. His straight-laced father Burt (Robert Duvall) and brother Joseph (Mark Wahlberg) don't speak to him that much, because they work for the police, and generally view Bobby as a disgrace due to the path he's chosen in life. Family tensions continue to rise when Joseph leads a bust into Bobby's club, searching for a suspected Russian druglord who frequents there (Alex Veadov). Due to Bobby's relationship with the druglord, the police hope that they can use him as an undercover informant. Bobby initially doesn't want to get involved, but due to a plot development that will remain secret here, he eventually agrees. The undercover sting goes wrong and Bobby, along with his girlfriend, Amada (Eva Mendez) are forced to go into hiding under the protection of the police. As Amada fears for their lives, Bobby must put his trust in the family he has avoided and resented for so long.
We Own the Night has a workable premise and a talented cast, both of which are held back by implausible plot developments, underwritten characters, and an overall sense that we've seen it all before. I can suspend my disbelief to a point, but sometimes even I was left shocked by some of the idiotic plot developments on display. For example, Robert Duvall's character is nervous about having Bobby going undercover for the police, since he knows he deals with some shady people at the club, and that if they found out his family were cops, they'd go after Bobby. So what does Duvall's character do? While he's walking by a police car that is currently holding a dangerous Russian drug dealer/murderer, he stands outside the car and screams very loudly to another officer that Bobby is his son, and spells out the entire situation about how his life would be in danger if a criminal just so happened to find out that Bobby was tied to the cops. This, of course, leads the drug dealer to swear revenge upon Bobby. He gets to act upon that revenge much sooner than anticipated, due to the fact he was transported to a prison apparently run by idiots that made me wonder how they hold onto any prisoners. Duvall's character also gets some of the best lines in the film, with such words of wisdom as "You marry an ape, you don't complain about the stench of bananas". Not to mention my personal favorite piece of dialogue, "When you piss in your pants, you can only stay warm for so long".
As the plot rides along its rickety, cliched road, we find ourselves constantly one step ahead of the characters. The screenplay by director James Gray seems cobbled together, as if not a lot of thought was put into it. The film seems to have gotten about as much attention. This is a slow-paced, almost leaden, film that doesn't even seem to come to life during its few action sequences. A car chase through rain-soaked streets initially promises to be thrilling, but never really amounts to much. There is only one sequence in the entire film that produces any sort of genuine tension and excitement, and that is when Bobby is taken to the drug factory while working undercover. His nervousness about being discovered, with Bobby's rapid breathing on the soundtrack, creates the perfect amount of tension. This moment almost seems to be directed by somebody else, as no other scene even comes close to generating the same amount of emotion or excitement as this sequence does. The rest of the movie could have been a particularly mediocre episode of
Hill Street Blues. The direction and look of the film is so flat, I often felt like I was watching a TV show projected on the big screen. The movie's certainly studied the dialogue of TV cop shows, with such well worn dialogue as "It's like a war out there" and "We gotta find out where the deal is goin' down" thrown around like they're going out of style.
The cast that's been assembled to tell this cliched story of family and loyalty is fine for the most part, although they're usually given little to do. Joaquin Phoenix comes across the best, as he's forced to pretty much carry the entire film as Bobby. The problem is his performance can't overcome the idiotic character arc he's forced to deal with. The guy goes from cocaine-snorting club owner to straight-laced cop in a matter of months. The last half of the film deals with Bobby finally opening his eyes, and joining up with his family on the force. Apparently all it takes to be a cop is family connections, because he just has to walk in, say he wants to be a cop, and they hand him a gun, saying he can go through the police academy when the current situation is over. They know of the guy's drug history, and don't even give a second thought to giving him a gun. As his family, Robert Duvall gets a couple of good scenes, but he could play this part of the stern yet caring father in his sleep. Mark Wahlberg may as well have just stayed home, as he's given surprisingly very little to do. His scenes with Phoenix and Duvall never really amount to much, despite the potential for drama. The main standout besides Phoenix is Eva Mendez, who starts out the film as a sexed-up woman who we initially suspect just loves Bobby for his money and power. As the film goes on, she becomes a lot more sympathetic than we expect, and we start to realize she is genuinely concerned for and loves him. It's one of the few surprises this film holds.
We Own the Night never quite lives up to its own potential. I kept on sitting there thinking to myself I know this is supposed to be engaging, but the movie never truly did. A couple scenes caught my attention once in a while, but then it was right back to where it was before. This is a frustrating experience, made even more so because of the talent on display. This could have been a gritty and hard-hitting film. Due to the fact that it willingly chooses to follow the path many have chosen, it simply comes across as a mediocre and forgettable one.
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I'm not so delusional as to expect every movie to be a ground breaking experience, but when a movie is as workman-like as We Own the Night, I tend to lose interest quickly. Though far from a bad movie, this is such a by-the-book piece of work that it's hard to get excited about anything happening on the screen. Not that we haven't seen it all before, and even quite recently. The film carries heavy shades of recent crime thrillers such as The Departed and Eastern Promises, only not as energetic or as engaging. It certainly doesn't help that it often comes across as being smaller in scale than the films it hopes to emulate, often coming across as a made for TV crime thriller with four-letter words thrown in the dialogue.
Set in Brooklyn in 1988, the story centers on Bobby Green (Joaquin Phoenix), a rising young nightclub owner who is living the fast life of money, women, sex, and drugs. His straight-laced father Burt (Robert Duvall) and brother Joseph (Mark Wahlberg) don't speak to him that much, because they work for the police, and generally view Bobby as a disgrace due to the path he's chosen in life. Family tensions continue to rise when Joseph leads a bust into Bobby's club, searching for a suspected Russian druglord who frequents there (Alex Veadov). Due to Bobby's relationship with the druglord, the police hope that they can use him as an undercover informant. Bobby initially doesn't want to get involved, but due to a plot development that will remain secret here, he eventually agrees. The undercover sting goes wrong and Bobby, along with his girlfriend, Amada (Eva Mendez) are forced to go into hiding under the protection of the police. As Amada fears for their lives, Bobby must put his trust in the family he has avoided and resented for so long.
We Own the Night has a workable premise and a talented cast, both of which are held back by implausible plot developments, underwritten characters, and an overall sense that we've seen it all before. I can suspend my disbelief to a point, but sometimes even I was left shocked by some of the idiotic plot developments on display. For example, Robert Duvall's character is nervous about having Bobby going undercover for the police, since he knows he deals with some shady people at the club, and that if they found out his family were cops, they'd go after Bobby. So what does Duvall's character do? While he's walking by a police car that is currently holding a dangerous Russian drug dealer/murderer, he stands outside the car and screams very loudly to another officer that Bobby is his son, and spells out the entire situation about how his life would be in danger if a criminal just so happened to find out that Bobby was tied to the cops. This, of course, leads the drug dealer to swear revenge upon Bobby. He gets to act upon that revenge much sooner than anticipated, due to the fact he was transported to a prison apparently run by idiots that made me wonder how they hold onto any prisoners. Duvall's character also gets some of the best lines in the film, with such words of wisdom as "You marry an ape, you don't complain about the stench of bananas". Not to mention my personal favorite piece of dialogue, "When you piss in your pants, you can only stay warm for so long".
As the plot rides along its rickety, cliched road, we find ourselves constantly one step ahead of the characters. The screenplay by director James Gray seems cobbled together, as if not a lot of thought was put into it. The film seems to have gotten about as much attention. This is a slow-paced, almost leaden, film that doesn't even seem to come to life during its few action sequences. A car chase through rain-soaked streets initially promises to be thrilling, but never really amounts to much. There is only one sequence in the entire film that produces any sort of genuine tension and excitement, and that is when Bobby is taken to the drug factory while working undercover. His nervousness about being discovered, with Bobby's rapid breathing on the soundtrack, creates the perfect amount of tension. This moment almost seems to be directed by somebody else, as no other scene even comes close to generating the same amount of emotion or excitement as this sequence does. The rest of the movie could have been a particularly mediocre episode of Hill Street Blues. The direction and look of the film is so flat, I often felt like I was watching a TV show projected on the big screen. The movie's certainly studied the dialogue of TV cop shows, with such well worn dialogue as "It's like a war out there" and "We gotta find out where the deal is goin' down" thrown around like they're going out of style.
The cast that's been assembled to tell this cliched story of family and loyalty is fine for the most part, although they're usually given little to do. Joaquin Phoenix comes across the best, as he's forced to pretty much carry the entire film as Bobby. The problem is his performance can't overcome the idiotic character arc he's forced to deal with. The guy goes from cocaine-snorting club owner to straight-laced cop in a matter of months. The last half of the film deals with Bobby finally opening his eyes, and joining up with his family on the force. Apparently all it takes to be a cop is family connections, because he just has to walk in, say he wants to be a cop, and they hand him a gun, saying he can go through the police academy when the current situation is over. They know of the guy's drug history, and don't even give a second thought to giving him a gun. As his family, Robert Duvall gets a couple of good scenes, but he could play this part of the stern yet caring father in his sleep. Mark Wahlberg may as well have just stayed home, as he's given surprisingly very little to do. His scenes with Phoenix and Duvall never really amount to much, despite the potential for drama. The main standout besides Phoenix is Eva Mendez, who starts out the film as a sexed-up woman who we initially suspect just loves Bobby for his money and power. As the film goes on, she becomes a lot more sympathetic than we expect, and we start to realize she is genuinely concerned for and loves him. It's one of the few surprises this film holds.
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