Too much of everything

Overrated

A lot of perfectly good film show their cards early, establish a unique premise and let the audience explore a topic at a leisurely pace, without much in terms of surprise. this film is not one of those films.

There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

The theme of brothers on opposite sides of the law is nothing new in movies so if you are going to make another movie on the subject you better make it a good one. Thankfully James Gray's "We Own the Night" is very good indeed. This time it's the Russia mafia who are the bad guys and Joaquin Phoenix is the brother who is caught up with them. The 'good' brother, Mark Wahlberg, is a New York cop, (the title, 'We own the night' is the motto of the New York police force), and when he's gunned down, Phoenix changes sides.It's a smart, old-fashioned movie that, minus the sex, swearing and extreme violence, wouldn't have disgraced Bogie or Cagney back in the day and Phoenix in particular is splendid in his role. There's also a very good performance from Robert Duvall as their father, who also happens to be a cop while Joaquin Baca-Asay's location photography of, mostly night-time New York, is outstanding. See it.

It's 1988 Brooklyn. Bobby Green (Joaquin Phoenix) runs a lavish nightclub El Caribe and is in business with questionable characters. Joe Grusinsky (Mark Wahlberg) follow his father Burt (Robert Duvall) into the family business policeman. Bobby is actually his brother using his mother's maiden name. Only his girlfriend Amada Juarez (Eva Mendes) knows his secret. Joe and Burt ask him to help spy on the Russians for narcotics but he refuses. After they raid Bobby's club, Joe gets shot. It gets more and more dangerous as things spiral out of control.This is an amazing cast and they all do a good job. This should be great but it's merely good enough. It has a gritty feel but somehow not realistic. Something is missing that I have to put down to writer/director James Gray. It has more the feel of the 70s like an older Godfather movie especially with the music selection. It may be the yellow tint on everything or the washed out colors. It throws me off with the realism of the movie. Even the subtitles reminds me of The Godfather. It's suppose to be late 80s and I don't get that sense. Joaquin does his usual great work. Mark Wahlberg matches him. This should have been such a great movie.

Great performances and direction. The characters are three dimensional, not overstated and sympathetic. Even though it's a two hour film it was good enough to have been longer without dragging. All of the characters are interesting enough to merit more time for development. I'll be looking for a director's cut or an extended version. Forget the formulaic, plodding, and disjointed accusations. This is simply a good story with credible characters who have realistic and multi-layered relationships with one another. Formulaic films are based on a popular format without any depth or insight; this movie has both. Because sibling rivalries and cop dramas are popular doesn't mean they should be ignored as a subject.Plodding movies have scenes failing in dialogue and performance which slow the plot down. I didn't find one scene to fault in this way, both dialogue and performance are top notch. Disjointed means that the plot doesn't flow in a coherent manner making the movie looked spliced together. The plot's progression and coherence had me watching intently for the whole movie and trying to think ahead for the characters, to find it disjointed one would need a pretty short attention span. A great find and a nice change from the many formulaic cop movies around.

James Gray, also a tea brand, is your typical writer/director, as in he needs to pick one or the other and focus on it. For Jimmy G, I'd definitely point him in the direction of the typewriter. Although I could blame poor casting, I think the real issue is that Gray could be replaced on set with a poster that read "Act Angry" that was just waved at the actors before each scene shot. I've never seen such limited range purposely put onto film. Everybody knows how to act angry. It's what you tell actors NOT to do when they need to be "emotional."My other issues with the movie could probably be blamed on Joaquin Baca- Asay, the DP, but if the director walks up and accepts an award for a film, he takes the fall as well. Plus Baca-Asay DP'd Thumbsuckers and Super Troopers. To the point: far too many stylized shots mixed in with a very standard shooting style. The one that really stood out was the cool looking shot of Man-jaw Mendes walking down a hallway smoking a cigarette. It was excellent in the trailer, but was completely out of place where they decided to cram it. Another pointless Hollywood moment, one of many in the film.I'm also going to question Gray's sanity as a writer with is bizarre choice to set We Own the Night in 1988. Who sits down and writes a period piece based 20 years ago? I might have been more okay with it, but there's nothing significant about that year that would be a compelling reason for a crime/drug drama. They only indicators were typical 80s Buicks, and a few big hair women. Beyond that, it didn't matter and you didn't notice it was anything besides now. I guess that's an achievement. Nah.Overall, a very slow, predictable story. I enjoyed the absolute bleakness of it all, but the performances were weak, and the cinematography average. Better luck next time!