Rating: R | Runtime: 117 minutes
Release Date: October 12th, 2007 (USA)
Studio: Columbia Pictures / Sony Pictures Releasing
Director(s): James Gray
Writer(s): James Gray

Light as a feather.

Writer/Director James Gray has made three films with six or seven years in between each. His newest is cop drama We Own the Night, a pretty basic tale of brothers on different sides of the law and the crime that brings them together. Truthfully, it’s very straightforward, clichéd, and quite convenient. One must give credit to the cast for doing all they can to mask its banality, though, as they do make it interesting enough to finish. But one can’t help feeling cheated when all is said and done. None of good things matter when it’s all so obvious.

Every twist and turn is evident. While this means there are few plot holes, it also means there are few surprises. Clues and devices are laid out in the open for us to realize everything happens for a reason, but have a little tact. Relationships are also altered quickly and easily, but one could believe it with the major tragedies that unfold. Maybe the bad blood between father and son vs. black sheep was fleshed out too well for the inevitable reversal to feel authentic. The pieces fall exactly where they must for the film to conclude how Gray imagined.

While the plot and execution are stale and ordinary, the performances aren’t. If Gray did anything well it was fostering great turns from his actors. Even Mark Wahlberg—great in the right roles and atrocious in the wrong ones—does well as a by-the-books cop. Maybe because he’s not on-screen very long, I thought he did a good job holding his own against better talent without overacting (whether this gives me hope he won’t ruin M. Night Shyamalan’s new movie as a public school science teacher remains to be seen).

Eva Mendes also does well to give her woman-in-distress stereotype some emotion and breathing room for the audience to see she’s more than the “Puerto Rican bimbo” her boyfriend’s family believes. And then you have the legend Robert Duvall playing another rendition of what he does best: the hard-nosed taskmaster with a stone façade and a little bit of heart buried underneath. His transformation in regards to how he treats his sons is the most unbelievable of all, but for he pulls it off well enough for me to not care.

The real star, however, is Joaquin Phoenix. I have heard some saying he’s bad here, but I beg to differ. If anyone’s metamorphosis is realistic, it’s his Bobby Green. Here’s a man who decided to go on his own path towards success by turning down the law enforcement life of his family and becoming a free spirit working his way from bartender to club manager. Between the fast lifestyle, drugs, and money, you forgive his naïveté towards what’s going on behind the scenes.

To experience the atrocities that soon turn his world upside down would change anyone’s outlook on life. Wanting to make amends for things that were out of his control yet tugging away at his psyche with immense guilt, Phoenix starts to show the qualities that make him like his father and brother. Just because he did the drugs and partied hard never meant he didn’t have a good sense of moral fortitude and compassion for his fellow man. Some people just need a push for it all come to the surface.

Complete with a cornucopia of supporting roles including nice turns from Danny Hoch as Jumbo, Alex Veadov as Vadim (very intimidating), and Moni Moshonov as Buzhayev, Gray has a knack for allowing his pawns to find their voices and work the board. It’s a shame that they couldn’t be doing it in a better film. We Own the Night is not bad, it’s just not that good either. At a time when mainstream dramas are a dime a dozen, films need that extra something to set them apart. I would rather have a plot hole-riddled work of uniquely inventive art than a safe story deciphered during the opening credits.

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Eva Mendes and Joaquin Phoenix in WE OWN THE NIGHT.