Last year Martin Scorsese's "The Departed" rode a wave of critical acclaim to a new shore, becoming the new standard by which future crime thrillers will be compared.
So rather than competing in creative force with a film that quickly established itself in cinematic history, relatively inexperienced director James Gray's ("The Yards") work in "We Own the Night" simply borrows many of the elements that made "The Departed" so good. Namely, actor Mark Wahlberg, in a role curiously similar to the one he had in Scorsese's flick. While "We Own the Night" is certainly well-executed, it nevertheless suffers severely from its lack of originality.
"We Own the Night" takes actors Mark Wahlberg and Joaquin Phoenix ("Walk the Line") and pits them against each other as rivaling brothers, with Wahlberg as an acknowledged police officer and Phoenix as the manager of a hopping nightclub. Of course, a major drug deal is about to go down there, and Wahlberg is in charge of busting it. The rest of the cast, including their father and chief of police, Robert Duvall ("Lucky You"), is connected through a series of social networks among friends and families, with some on the side of the police and some on the side of the criminals. Sounds familiar, right?
But while this film is set up much like "The Departed," it takes a very different approach in furthering its plot. "We Own the Night" focuses more on the psychology of its characters and the effects that various chains of events have on those involved, rather than constructing itself around revenge, betrayal and gunshots to the head (as other crime thrillers often prefer). Make no mistake, such a film must have gunshots to the head, but at least Gray — who also wrote the film — doesn't terminate every other character in this way.
Where characters are concerned, Mark Wahlberg and Joaquin Phoenix certainly play their roles well, but it must have been obvious that they would when they were cast by the producers (themselves), because Wahlberg's character is uncannily similar to the foul-mouthed, bad-tempered, well-meaning guy he played in "The Departed," while Phoenix's character is almost a duplicate rendition of the emotionally troubled, drug-abusing Johnny Cash from "Walk the Line" (but with an opposite character arc, instead changing from reckless to heroic).
The two function reasonably well as a duo, whether they're acting like brothers or enemies, but Wahlberg's screen presence is far beyond that of Phoenix's, who at times seems like he chose to be in this movie just because he had nothing better to do with his career. For the sake of trying something new and giving the audience original characters, it would have been interesting to see Wahlberg and Phoenix reverse roles.
Other elements of the film, however, are surprisingly impressive. Though it will probably be largely overlooked, except in an untelevised Academy Award speech, the art direction is one of the film's greatest strengths. Set in 1988, "Night" has the feel of an ’80s movie, with an intentional inclination toward grainy images and grimy, cluttered and completely believable New York City sets. The actors never seem to be wearing any makeup, and the lighting very rarely serves to flatter their aging faces.
In a few particular action sequences, and even one or two dramatic moments, the cinematography and editing also enhance the feeling of the film to a wonderfully exciting new level for such relatively unoriginal plot devices. A disastrous SWAT raid and a surprisingly gripping car chase stand out as especially impressive, proving that these sorts of expected action sequences can still be improved even after so many years of redundancy in a plethora of crime films.
If only "We Own the Night" had managed to maintain audience interest to this degree throughout its duration, it might have been something more than just another crime thriller that sprang up in the wake of the genre's rediscovered success last year.
