Chris Knipp
10-20-2007, 08:23 AM
JAMES GRAY: WE OWN THE NIGHT (2007)
Bigger isn't better
Each time James Gray's films get bigger, better funded, more ambitious, but not necessarily better--though he does stay within his range of tastes and themes and there is always hope that he, like some other directors, will return to the personal quality of his beginnings and do something more sophisticated, more mature, and more satisfying. The quirky, atmospheric debut film Little Odessa, with its interesting cast (Edward Furlong, Tim Roth, Vanessa Redgrave, et al.), sought to capture the mood of the Brighton Beach Russian community of Brooklyn. The Yards, starring Mark Wahlberg as does this new one, moved more into Godfatheresque territory, with family corruption intertwined with city politics. We Own the Night locks into clichéd conventions of epic family struggles, with a good cop son (Joe, played by Wahlberg) and a bad one (Bobby, played by Joaquin Phoenix), who's fallen into managing a Russian gangster's disco and is a naive hedonist out of his depth.
And then things happen and the brothers have to come together over what's left after vanguishing the evil Russian mobsters. It's 1988--but not particularly--perhaps the time-frame is chosen to suggest a New York with more crime: the date is interesting, but somewhat moot. There are some powerful set pieces. Everyone notes the ferocious car chase in a heavy rain with windshield wipers dancing. The "sting operation gone terribly wrong" is pretty good, though on familiar crime flick territory (compare New Jack City's flashily staged drug factory). Also memorable is the late sequence of Joaquin Phoenix hunting the Russian gangster with a rifle in a field of tall reeds. Gray likes to shoot from above and the Brooklyn disco, "El Caribe" (a fanciful creation worthy of Brian Di Palma at his more baroque) set up in an old movie palace, looks unbelievably grand: but these tableuux aren't involving. Some other big scenes could be confused with The Yards. But the latter had a stronger, more complex sense of family. Wahlberg as a feisty, foul-mouthed cop in Scorsese's The Departed seemed fresh and provocative, but this time as a policeman the actor has been given almost no personality. Joaquin Phoenix seems a burnt out case at 33. He has filled out and looks overindulged, bloated, and bleary-eyed. When he puts on a cop uniform and graduates from the police academy, he looks like he's drugged. It's hard to understand what Eva Mendes, who's beautiful and energetic, would see in him.
Heavy, insinuating music can be oppressive in films, but here it does work to maintain a high level of intensity. You don't feel convinced, you may not care much, but you still can't look away. We Own the Night has the manner of a great movie, without really being one.
Partly this is because the plot doesn't quite make sense. When Bobby helps his police chief father (a rigid, too-familiar Robert Duvall) and his brother Joe, and gets blown, his father says he'll have to "protect" him--put him in witness protection, which has been mentioned before. The family is marked for extinction by the Russian drug gang. How, then, does Bobby decide to become a cop? And is it really so easy to do so, just becaue he "has inside knowledge" (which by now the cops would all know)? Gray is so involved in his grand themes and family drama that he neglects to tell a convincing story.
The story element was weak in Gray's earlier films. He's big on atmosphere and set pieces, short on plot logic or plot line. But despite disappointment here and a shift toward cliche, he remains an interesting and independent director.
We Own the Night leaves you feeling wrung out. It's heavy and oppressive and has devastating events--which are even more disquieting because you don't really care about them, so there's no catharsis. It's a big disappointment in a literal sense: it's a disappointment, and it really is big.
Bigger isn't better
Each time James Gray's films get bigger, better funded, more ambitious, but not necessarily better--though he does stay within his range of tastes and themes and there is always hope that he, like some other directors, will return to the personal quality of his beginnings and do something more sophisticated, more mature, and more satisfying. The quirky, atmospheric debut film Little Odessa, with its interesting cast (Edward Furlong, Tim Roth, Vanessa Redgrave, et al.), sought to capture the mood of the Brighton Beach Russian community of Brooklyn. The Yards, starring Mark Wahlberg as does this new one, moved more into Godfatheresque territory, with family corruption intertwined with city politics. We Own the Night locks into clichéd conventions of epic family struggles, with a good cop son (Joe, played by Wahlberg) and a bad one (Bobby, played by Joaquin Phoenix), who's fallen into managing a Russian gangster's disco and is a naive hedonist out of his depth.
And then things happen and the brothers have to come together over what's left after vanguishing the evil Russian mobsters. It's 1988--but not particularly--perhaps the time-frame is chosen to suggest a New York with more crime: the date is interesting, but somewhat moot. There are some powerful set pieces. Everyone notes the ferocious car chase in a heavy rain with windshield wipers dancing. The "sting operation gone terribly wrong" is pretty good, though on familiar crime flick territory (compare New Jack City's flashily staged drug factory). Also memorable is the late sequence of Joaquin Phoenix hunting the Russian gangster with a rifle in a field of tall reeds. Gray likes to shoot from above and the Brooklyn disco, "El Caribe" (a fanciful creation worthy of Brian Di Palma at his more baroque) set up in an old movie palace, looks unbelievably grand: but these tableuux aren't involving. Some other big scenes could be confused with The Yards. But the latter had a stronger, more complex sense of family. Wahlberg as a feisty, foul-mouthed cop in Scorsese's The Departed seemed fresh and provocative, but this time as a policeman the actor has been given almost no personality. Joaquin Phoenix seems a burnt out case at 33. He has filled out and looks overindulged, bloated, and bleary-eyed. When he puts on a cop uniform and graduates from the police academy, he looks like he's drugged. It's hard to understand what Eva Mendes, who's beautiful and energetic, would see in him.
Heavy, insinuating music can be oppressive in films, but here it does work to maintain a high level of intensity. You don't feel convinced, you may not care much, but you still can't look away. We Own the Night has the manner of a great movie, without really being one.
Partly this is because the plot doesn't quite make sense. When Bobby helps his police chief father (a rigid, too-familiar Robert Duvall) and his brother Joe, and gets blown, his father says he'll have to "protect" him--put him in witness protection, which has been mentioned before. The family is marked for extinction by the Russian drug gang. How, then, does Bobby decide to become a cop? And is it really so easy to do so, just becaue he "has inside knowledge" (which by now the cops would all know)? Gray is so involved in his grand themes and family drama that he neglects to tell a convincing story.
The story element was weak in Gray's earlier films. He's big on atmosphere and set pieces, short on plot logic or plot line. But despite disappointment here and a shift toward cliche, he remains an interesting and independent director.
We Own the Night leaves you feeling wrung out. It's heavy and oppressive and has devastating events--which are even more disquieting because you don't really care about them, so there's no catharsis. It's a big disappointment in a literal sense: it's a disappointment, and it really is big.