We Own the Night

Movie melodramas these days have an incredibly hard time balancing the artistic intentions of the filmmaker who made them, and satisfying the audiences’ expectations. In We Own the Night, maintaining that populist sense of pleasing the audience doesn’t happen. Instead, the film is relentlessly negative and depressing, which is a quality that one doesn’t associate with mainstream movie making. It’s a moralistic cop melodrama, so of course the film’s style is unpleasant and jarring. I think the movie is affective up to a point, and does indeed “reach” the audience, but in a particularly domineering and oppressively ugly manner, which is appropriate for the genre that these filmmakers are working in. That doesn’t mean that you have to like the movie.

This film is primarily a drama about how it’s very hard to be part of a family, while keeping your individuality in the process. The story deals with two brothers who represent the different spectrums of the nightlife. There’s Joseph Grusinsky (Mark Wahlberg), a cop on the force whose latest efforts have been concentrated on trying to stop the Russian Mafia from their drug deals. There’s Bobby Green (Joaquin Phoenix), a nightclub owner who ironically enough is friends with some of those drug dealers. Their father, by the name of Burt (Robert Duvall), is the chief of police. The interconnectedness of this family ultimately results in an unrelenting drama, involving the Russian mafia. Bobby finally realizes that he should never have strayed away from his family, and should never have been as irresponsible as he has in the past.

The family conflict in the movie is just as intense as the violence that we as an audience watch. The reason for this is because of the way the film is constructed. In the earlier scenes, Joaquin Phoenix’s character is in direct opposition to the members of his family. At one point in the film, he says to his Latino girlfriend Amada (Eva Mendes) that his family is comprised of a bunch of stiffs. When the audience sees both Joseph and Burt in the same shot, they do look like ghosts on the screen. Anyone would look that way if they were compared to a heated up stallion, which is what Bobby is. He just wants to enjoy the nightlife of late 80’s New York. He doesn’t realize that mixing with the wrong crowd can have dire consequences. Basically, the enjoyably fun early scenes in the film, the 80’s nostalgia trip with Joaquin Phoenix as the audience’s guide, are examples of how Bobby was not being loyal to his family. His having fun with Amada, so to speak, is viewed as immoral and wrong by the filmmakers. Once the drama ensues, she becomes the consoling girlfriend to Bobby; she’s even dressed in white. This is basically a slap in the face to the audience. I enjoyed the earlier parts of the film. There were even great dramatic moments, like when the cops bust Bobby’s club in order to begin moving against the Russians who were making some drug deals there. It’s dramatic when Bobby looks at his brother while being shoved to the ground by the police. If this is the way for Bobby to be reprimanded by his family, isn’t their method a little harsh? All of these emotions can be read on Joaquin Phoenix’s face.

The fights between the two brothers are also very realistic and excitingly intense. Why did the filmmakers stop the film in mid stream and make We Own the Night somber and cold to the touch? The unrelenting sense of doom that pervades this family is depressing to watch. I don’t want to give any of the plot away, but what happens in the film is really all just one big reprimand towards Bobby’s character. It’s a very literal movie; the movie makers punish Bobby because he strayed away from the family. We Own the Night is really very similar to an old fashioned social context picture; it’s also not very enjoyable. The whole movie, starting from the moment when the dire chain of events start, is in memoriam. That’s why the audience can see what’s going to happen from a mile away.

I’ve talked with fans of the film who say that the sensationalized violence in the movie is realistic, because that was the way New York was back then. It’s not so much the violence that I have a problem with; my concerns are more along the lines of the motive of the filmmakers. The declaration that writer director James Gray makes to the audience is that a man’s gotta do what a man’s gotta do, and that it’s moral and just to do so. My question is: even when he’s pressured by his family? We Own the Night is very deceptive along these lines, because Fate is the reason for why Bobby comes to his senses and becomes “moral”, when it’s easily apparent that it’s his family that forces him. It’s not the Russian Mafia that makes Bobby want to become a cop, it’s his father’s doing, and Grey cleverly tries to subvert this. Also, Bobby’s and the police forces way of dealing with the Russians (one cop at one point says that they should just wipe out the Russian Mafia: this is the only joke in the movie) is not so much an aspect of New York, as it is an example of the filmmakers’ consciousness. The film is more Conservatism in tone than anything else. We Own the Night is basically like an old “complex” moralistic movie, like Shane, except that it’s more violent. The villain in the film, played by Alex Veadov, is simply the villain and that’s all. The character doesn’t have any other dimensions to him, and this adds to the tone of the film, which is utter desperation.

We Own the Night is very well made, but in a calculating way, which is not necessarily a bad thing. This manipulative style actually adds to the suspenseful moments. Scenes like Bobby being snared in a barrage of bullets, and Bobby following a car in a devastating chase, are so excruciatingly suspenseful, that they are beautifully executed. It’s ironic that these scenes all involve brutality, but that’s the genre that Gray is working within.

Even though We Own the Night has the same moralistic tendencies as Shane, that film didn’t have the performances that this film has. Even though the filmmakers misuse Eva Malone, she’s a great presence on the screen. She’s beautiful to watch, and can alternate moods. She plays both naughty and nice in this film. Robert Duvall, that all-seasoned pro, is perfect at playing the domineering father figure. He knows how to act in a scene where he’s angry with his son; he conveys anger through silence. Duvall can also play a consoling caring person, which gives dimensionality to this one-note character. Mark Wahlberg is basically playing the same cop that he did in The Departed. The difference is that Joseph is more disassociated from everyone and emotionally removed. That’s exactly the way Wahlberg plays him, and gives a very unfussy performance. He mixes these emotions with ones of anger towards his brother in the early scenes. It’s not like he doesn’t have passion in him.

Speaking of passion, Phoenix gives an intensely ardent performance. That’s the difference between Bobby and the rest of his family; he’s passionate while they are not. Phoenix’s performance is the main reason for why this particular cop melodrama feels different. No one has ever seen this type of actor in a movie like this before. However, his performance is consistent with other Phoenix roles. He’s very good at playing someone in desperation, while at the same time being depressed. This conflict of emotion was apparent in his roles in both Gladiator, and Walk the Line. He’s always the saving grace for the movies that he’s in. His hooded look of despair when he’s interrogating someone, for instance, saves the dumb scene that he appears in, makes it a worthwhile scene. Phoenix looks like he came out of the late 80’s with his dark black bedraggled hair: in the early scenes he has a lacerated look on his face, while at the same time being amiable. This fits the characterization of Bobby, because he can’t stand the fact that his family constantly puts him down for having fun. Later on, that smile goes from his face, yet he still retains that torn look. Phoenix gives the film different shades of complexity.

The movie needs Phoenix’s performance because it’s sensationalistic and rather basic. For example, the film is very unrealistic once Bobby decides to be a member of the police force. Throughout the movie Bobby has a body guard watching after him the whole time, due to the threats against his life. Have you ever seen a cop chasing a person while at the same time being followed by a body guard? Because the film is primal in tone, it lacks a social context. Isn’t that offensive? Especially considering that the filmmakers make us care about Bobby, without giving him a sense of intelligence. The actor provides those emotions. The fact that the character becomes a vigilante and joins the police force in order to get revenge, instead of grieving in the proper way, is irritating. The filmmakers say to the audience, in effect, that that’s the proper thing for a man to do.