By KEN TARR is a student at Santa Monica College, an actor and writer and is also taller than 99 percent of the population. He can be reached telepathically or at trutoulouse@yahoo.com.
Teetering between generic plot points and surprising intensity, “We Own The Night” (in theaters Oct. 12) is a very functional depiction of a time and a place: Brooklyn circa 1988. The soundtrack, the costumes and the set design distinguish this film as much as “GoodFellas” was able to. However, the viewer is left wondering halfway through the film: What happened to all the surprises from the first half of the film? Directed by James Gray (“The Yards.” which also starred Mark Wahlberg and Joaquin Phoenix), this film is overly ambitious, which is a new direction from Gray after fairly straightforward crime-thrillers thus far.
The story is unable to decide whether it is a character study of Bobby (played by Phoenix), a depiction of a family torn apart by corrupting influences or a crime thriller about the Russian Mafia. At times it is good at all three, though mostly is rather remedial and cliché. Bobby has become a successful night club manager by hiding his identity as the son and brother of two NYPD stalwarts (Wahlberg and Robert Duvall). Bobby dates a sexy Puerto Rican (Eva Mendes) and lives a typical ‘80s life fueled by cocaine and whatever else is hip. This is all to the dismay of the very boring police characters, who decide to start busting his El Caribe club in search of a prominent drug dealer named Vadim (Alex Veadov).
Mostly, and this is making it too simple, Bobby is the only interesting character in the entire film. Anyone could play Wahlberg’s Joseph. Especially with concern to the Russian Mafia stereotypes that serve as the villains.
The film works only as a study of how Bobby grows up, gets betrayed and changes his life. Mendes, an actress of intriguing beauty, must suffer through a role that would be an insult to actual writing to say it was actually written. Scenes between Mendes and Phoenix are cloying and mis-handled, and they have real attraction and charisma, making it all the more dumbfounding.
Duvall, at times, is great but mostly struggles for screen time. His demise, which I hope is not a major surprise to anyone is very predictable and choreographed scenes in advance. If this movie didn’t feel so much pressure to conform to its formula, it would have been better. As it is, it is definitely good popcorn entertainment and thrilling at times. The first half is actual very original filmmaking in terms of style, camera movements and on-screen action. It does become very by the numbers from that point on. While it is certainly not “The Departed,” “We Own The Night” is a good police versus Mafia thriller. Watch it without your thinking cap entirely on. Phoenix deserves attention for this performance and Gray should have seen how much better his character was than the rest and decided to re-think the other characters. It is surprising that this film was and is ready for release as is, but alas, I recommend it though I lament the fact that it degenerates into quasi-schlock at times.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on October 6, 2007. Read the original PDF.