We Own the Night

Oh yeah... I watched this movie didn't I? For some reason, I decided to watch this movie the day before I watched Interstellar. This wouldn't be the first time I've done my reviews out of order but I think there's a reason why I finished my Interstellar review first.

I'm not totally sure what attracted me to this movie when it came out in 2007. The previews looked good, Eva Mendes is freaking gorgeous, and I mean Mark Wahlberg? Why the hell not?

Now this movie used to play on FX like everyday so I had multiple opportunities to watch the entire movie, and believe me, I tried a hundred times over. For some reason, it just did nothing for me. It was boring, I fell asleep too often, it just didn't really fit me.

Now, a couple years later, I'd like to think I have a little bit better taste in movies, will We Own the Night turn out to be better than I thought?

We Own the Night takes place in Brooklyn 1988. Bobby Green (played by Joaquin Phoenix) is a successful up and coming night club manager. He runs a night club in Brooklyn for a Russian named Marat Buzhayev (played by Moni Moshonov). While Bobby is not involved with drugs or criminal activity himself, he does know that it happens in his club. It just so happens that a big drug dealer by the name of Vadim Nezhinski (played by Alex Veadov) is doing a lot of his business. Nezhinski is the dealer that Bobby's father and brother, Joe (played by Robert Duvall and Mark Wahlberg), top cops in the Brooklyn police department, are looking to bust.

Now Green's relationship with his family is not that great and he doesn't ever tell anybody except for his girlfriend Amada (played by Eva Mendes) that his family are all cops. At first Joe wants Bobby to inform on Nezhinski but when Bobby refuses Joe goes straight in to try and bust this Russian mobster. This results in Joe getting shot and put int he hospital. Its at this point that Bobby decides to help the police take down the drug dealer who went after his family.

There of course, from the beginning is familial tension between Bobby and his father and brother. Its too different worlds colliding and they are bound to butt heads.

I really can't put my finger on why I'm not a fan of this movie. It seems to have all the ingredients for a fascinating crime thriller and yet it just kind of falls flat.

Its got a really good cast, the kind of people you would expect for a movie about the police in 1988 New York, and yet its just not anything spectacular.

Furthermore I'm not totally sure what this movie wants to be. I'm not sure if it wants to be your run of the mill action cop drama or if its trying to be something more gritty, realistic, and making a statement on something.

I think the main problem I have with this movie is the movie's main character.

I really can't say whether or not Joaquin Phoenix or the script is the one to blame for this movie just being boring as hell.

The character of Bobby Green just isn't that interesting or likable at all.

What do we know about Bobby Green? We know he's a night club owner, we know he has family who are cops, people he hates but is going to come running if they get shot. And we also know he has a hot girlfriend.

But throughout all of that, we never really know that much about Bobby as a character. Why is he the social outcast of the family? Why didn't he become a cop instead of a night club owner. Why does he hate this family so much, but why does he run back to them when they are in danger.

And again, I'm not totally sure if this is the writer's fault of Joaquin Phoenix's. I know its not totally Joaquin Phoenix's fault... but the man does have these moments where I'm not totally sure he's 100% into the movie.

I mean the man looks stoned the entire movie. I mean he is a lot of the time, but he has a lot of moments where he looked like he was asleep. Maybe its his deep set eyes but, if Joaquin Phoenix isn't going to stay awake for his movie, why should I?

There's also a part where he's offered to come on and become a police officer because of the information he knows. Now at this point, Phoenix is a state witness ready to testify against this drug lord (sorry about the spoilers). Why in hell would they let him become a police officer now?

I understand if after the trial he wants to be a police officer, sure who gives a shit. But you're trying to protect him and his girlfriend and you want him to become a police officer? Bullshit!

I think this is the movie that really makes me question whether or not Joaquin Phoenix is a good actor or not. I'll admit, I really liked him in Gladiator. I thought Commodus was a great antagonist, mainly because while he was nuts and imbalanced, he had legitimate feelings and insecurities. And Phoenix did a good job in acting that.

However, Gladiator was a much, MUCH better script than We Own the Night. Phoenix was given the role of his career because of that great screenwriting. I understand that a lot of the blame should fall on the director and the screenwriter but there are actors that it doesn't matter what the script is, as long as they're not phoning it in, its a good time regardless. I don't think Joaquin Phoenix is that kind of actor.

Now, to be fair, I have not seen Walk the Line, I have not seen Her, I do not know enough of Phoenix's work to really determine if he's that great of an actor. All I'm saying is this movie doesn't really paint a good picture of the guy.

And then there is Eva Mendes as Phoenix's girlfriend. Honestly, as a teenager, this was one of the big draws of the movie... she's freaking gorgeous.

But now that I'm looking at this objectively, or as objectively as I can, she's really not that interesting of a character... in fact she's kind of annoying. Since I don't really have anything to tell me that I care about Joaquin Phoenix in this film, I don't have anything to tell me that I care about Eva Mendes in this film. Sure I get it, her life becomes difficult when they get put into protection and she's not able to see her family, but since I don't see this character as a really likable character, her complaining about it just seems whiny instead of a legitimate complaint.

Also, when Bobby decides to join the police force, he doesn't tell her... why? Put aside the fact that it still doesn't make any sense that he joined the police force in the first place, why wouldn't he tell her?

Eva Mendes seems to be the only person he really cares about prior to his family getting in trouble, and then he's just ready to throw that all away to be a cop? Something we never really expected him to do since the beginning? And then its never resolved. Sure Bobby thinks he sees her in the crowd... but he doesn't. She just didn't really seem to have that huge of an impact on the movie. It didn't necessarily need to be resolved but then why was she built up so much?

And that's a theme throughout the entire film. There's no emotional connection to any of these characters. I don't like the relationship between Bobby and his girlfriend, there's no brotherly chemistry between Phoenix and Wahlberg, Duvall is just phoning it in.

Its just a matter that there is no emotional investment in these characters. They're just there going along with the plot of the story, the mediocre crime drama plot.

The only time they really try to delve in is at the end when Mark Wahlberg freezes up when he's reminded of when he was shot. That part was good. Way to go Mark Wahlberg. But its pushed aside so quickly for Joaquin Phoenix to go out and be stupid in a cornfield. The movie had a real shot to delve into the personal problems of Mark Wahlberg, this tough talking cop who wants nothing more than to bring down the guys who killed his father (spoilers again... sorry) and all he does is freeze up... but screw that, let's watch Joaquin Phoenix walk into a burning cornfield with a blank stare in order to exact revenge.

Even the villains are your generic Russian mobsters. Sure they're a little bit intimidating but I will forget about them almost as quickly as I forgot their names and have to keep on looking at the Wikipedia page to remember them.

I would be wrong to not point out the stylistic path of the film. There's a lot of use of shadows and darkness that I guess are suppose to signify something... and I have to give the movie credit for trying something different than what is run of the mill.

But the problem with this is that the movie is just so dank, dark, and depressing that its just unpleasant to watch.

And don't get me wrong, I'm very aware that that was probably the style James Gray was going for, that the darkness and feel for the movie was all intentional.

But if that's the case, at least make the characters likable, enjoyable to watch, instead of a bland choice of either stoic and high looking, or stoic and hard boiled.

And if you're saying, No Connor you don't get it, the characters are suppose to be that way, its a realistic crime drama, to that I would say why the hell then does he become a cop! Sorry, I know I'm harping on this one plot point a lot but this movie was not made to be realistic. It just wasn't. So the movie may have "style" but style really isn't worth much if your characters are shit, your plot is mediocre and generic, and there's nothing to stop me from falling asleep.

Overall, don't waste your time with We Own the Night. Its nothing we haven't seen before and worse is, we've seen it done better.

But what do you think? Am I missing the point of the movie? Is there something glaring I forgot to mention? Comment and Discuss below!

I'll leave you with this. Every time I googled We Own the Night, this music video kept on coming up... so I guess that's the video... Enjoy?