James Gray does not care one bit that he is being labelled time and again as an aspiring Scorsese. With now three films in 13 years he is defiantly oblivious to the fact that his chosen avenues for cinematic explorations have been trodden by great directors, hijacked by a zillion TV movies and then gradually abandoned by the audiences thanks to changing tastes. Little Odessa and The Years, Gray’s first two films, dealt with cops and gangster in New York immigrant communities and all the pain and desolation that go with them. They were dark, sulky and almost in love with their own morose inevitability, modern stripped-down working-class Greek tragedies, if you will.
We Own the Night does pretty much the same thing, Gray even uses the same stars. The film adds little to the genre, it feels like a good 70s crime drama you might catch on the telly, but this is exactly the film Gray wants to make and he deserves credit for being so defiantly unfashionable.
The story takes place in the late 80s and centres on drug-happy Brooklyn club owner Bobby Green (Joaquin Phoenix) who throws his family legacy of law enforcement out the window: his father and brother (Robert Duvall and Mark Wahlberg) are part of a New York police now ready to go tough on the drugs business. They resent Bobby’s independence – the latter has even changed his family name to hide his Polish-American origin – and first want him out of business but then offer him to co-operate against the Russian mob. A tragedy testing how deep family ties run happens and it aligns Bobby with the good guys, which puts him at odds with his own ambitions and with his sizzling Puerto Rican girlfriend (Eva Mendes) who has second thoughts about dating an aspiring cop.
The well-acted malevolence of the Russian mobsters (by Moni Moshonov and Alex Veadov) makes it fairly easy to get involved in the good versus bad story, but then one can either admire the boldness with which it relies on coincidence or get frustrated by it. The acting of the stars and the supporting cast cannot tip the scales either way – the performances are solid and just as good as the materials requires, but never stray from the rules of the genre. As the story progresses along the oh so familiar patterns of operations gone wrong, betrayals and chases, one has to seek its pleasures elsewhere. And there are pleasures to find: Gray proves himself a master of conjuring a sense of dread and desolation; the tone of trauma and menace gives unexpected depth and substance to the events unfolding; there is a riveting car chase in the rain set against the sound of windscreen wipers.
When this all adds up there is enough to recommend the film. It offers nothing groundbreaking that one will remember for years, months or even a week. You might even feel a little disheartened when exiting the theatre, but will certainly not regret that you have seen it. It is one of those films that despite the contrivances and plot loopholes remind us of the bitter taste of real life.
