Twice in the movie “We Own the Night,” Joaquin Phoenix’s character is asked, “Why do you have to go? Where are you going?” The repeated identical lines are symbolic of the drifting, directionless, purposeless life being lived by the black sheep of a generational police family. Phoenix is great as always as a nightclub owner battling the reality of the drug scene vs. the reality that his brother and father are both decorated, respected cops. His father, played by the epic Robert Duvall, tells him, “Sooner or later, you’re going to be with us or you’re going to be with the drug dealers. Because it’s like a war out there. Now do you understand that? Do you?” This sets the scene for a dramatic series of events that unveil a solid plot, but can’t save this film from sinking into cliché.
Phoenix, living under the alias of “Bobby Green” to distance himself from his ties to the authorities, is almost a caricature of the “bad son.” He casually jumps over a pew in church, makes out with Eva Mendes (opening scene … wow) during a moment of silence and walks out on a celebration for his brother, who is making an acceptance speech after being made captain. Yet Green also seems to have a kind heart, so some of the lack of decorum and respect seems forced and contrived.
I’m sure that Wahlberg is considered a solid actor in some quarters, but I find it extraordinary difficult to take him seriously. Something about him being “Marky Mark” at one point makes it sort of hard for me to consider him a serious Hollywood player. Anyway, he is fine, if a little too understated, as the older brother. When he is shot at close range and nearly killed and then Duvall dies while chasing a Russian drug runner, it is a little too predictable to see his younger brother, Phoenix, find his life’s purpose, first as an undercover rogue and then as an official policeman. The choice between Phoenix becoming a cop and losing his relationship with Mendes is completely glossed over, but at that point of the movie, things had sort of fallen off the tracks anyway.
Director James Gray employs the tired old bitter-criminal-somehow-escapes-from-prison-to-take-revenge-on-those-who-put-him-there plot twist, to complete frustration and disappointment for the viewer who thought this one was burgeoning into a unique flick. An hour into the film, it looks like it is winding up, which is when the questionable plot choices begin. Gray also turns to the fade-to-black technique way too often, and the atmosphere and backdrop doesn’t ring true. The movie is supposed to take place in the late 1980s, but it appears as if the director and producers wanted it to pass for the 1970s.
There are some very memorable moments as well, though. When Phoenix’s character is taken to a drug den, a bag is put over his head to keep him from remembering the way, and part of the scene is shot through the bag itself, complete with heavy breathing revealing his nervousness. Later, as Phoenix is led down a hallway, it slowly disappears into black as he slowly follows, building the tension. Add in a shocking shotgun blast scene to the head and there are enough intriguing spots within the movie to catch your attention.
Several quotes also stood out, for various reasons. “When you piss in your pants, you can only stay warm for so long” and “Better to be judged by 12 than carried by six” are two that combine humor with the gravity of certain points of the flick. When Phoenix is told, “Your life is in that lighter. Good luck.” as he embarks on his undercover task, it is literal; the lighter eventually led to events that wound up leading him to the police department, where he found his life and way. When the Russian is in the back of the cop car and mutters, “He’s a dead man,” it is also literal in many ways because who Phoenix’s character was died when he dove out the window to escape the sting, and his new life as a policeman was effectively born.
Phoenix and Wahlberg produced this movie as well as acted in it, and the combination of Phoenix and Duval, phenomenal as a past-his-prime cop, carries it for quite a while. Controversial Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban was one of the executive producers, however, and one would think he could throw Dirk Nowitzki a bone with a role as one of the Russian gangsters. The smokeout scene near the end is a good one, but it is difficult to discern what Phoenix says as he captures the bad guy, and the final scene is well done, going away from some of the cliché-ridden choices that had riddled some of the other parts of the movie.
All in all, I was expecting a little more, but this flick lost me with some seemingly lazy decisions in the middle of the movie, along with a too-quickly-tied-up resolution. Any film with Phoenix and Duvall is going to be more than worth checking out, but don’t expect anything revolutionary from this one.
*Just for fun, this video includes French subtitles. Oui.
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