Review: We Own the Night

Bobby (Joaquin Phoenix) is a successful, hedonistic club owner in 80’s Brooklyn, a position that allows him intimate contact with the drug peddling Russian underworld. This stands in stark contrast to his brother Joseph (Mark Wahlberg) and father (Robert Duvall) who are high profile members of the New York City Police department’s war on drugs. His priorities soon change when a bust at his club leads to a botched hit on Joseph, instigating his own personal crusade for redemption and family unity.

If you think you have a good idea how the rest of the film plays out from the above description, you’re probably right. The plot is a standard, by-the-numbers crime story. In particular, it oozes a simplistic, black and white morality more suited to a superhero film or even an after school special. There are no shades of grey on either side of the law. The police are virtuous, upstanding All-American heroes while the Russian mob are the sneering foreign menace. It’s as if because the film is set in the 80’s director James Grey felt compelled to infuse it with a heavy dose of cold war sentimentalism. All this achieves is a parade of two dimensional cliches for Phoenix to play off. It may also be why the marquee actors fail to live up to their billing.

Walhberg’s character and performance seem a watered down version of his The Departed role, while Duvall, ostensibly emotionally effected by the descents of his two boys is alarmingly passionless for such a well respected actor. Eva Mendes as the love interest gets to whip out her goodies in the opening scene in a cheap ploy to involve the audience, after which she is confined to the strenuous tasks of doting on Bobby and balancing an expression of concern with looking sexy in one of the most vacuous roles imaginable. No wonder she’s ended up in rehab, it’s easy to understand how an actress in a role this boring would be driven to the bottle, or pills or whatever it is Hollywood starlets OD on these days.

There is the odd highlight buried amongst the mediocrity. Phoenix does his level best to inject some complexity into proceedings, expressing the internal conflict between personal wants and moral duty effectively, while a rain soaked car chase sets the pulse racing, albeit briefly. However, neither element is enough to lift the film out of the predictable blandness it finds itself mired in.

It occurs to me that I have been harsh on this movie because it follows viewings of No Country for Old Men and There will be Blood. But this is a valid consideration in and of itself. Being Oscar season and with so many top quality productions on the big screen, We Own the Night has been lost in the shuffle. Frankly though, that is about what it deserves.