Drama

• Title: We Own the Night
• IMDb: link

Studio execs love to take a film and change it in some way to make a different film which can play to the same audiences.  Die Hard is a classic example as studios rushed to make Die Hard on a boat (Under Siege), Die-Hard on a plane (Passenger 57, Con Air, Executive Decision), Die-Hard on a train (Under Siege 2: Dark Territory) and many others.  The only other thing execs love more (than easy sequel or adaptations) is to combine two different films.  Now I don’t know for sure that this is how this film came about but I think it went something like this…
“Hey, I got a great idea for a movie.  It came to me as I was watching The Departed”
“I don’t know, I mean Scorsese just did that.”
“No man listen to this.  When I finished the movie and popped out the DVD I turned the cable on and there was that Studio 54 flick with Austin Powers.”
“Yeah?”
“We combine the two films!”
“That’s a great idea!”
“Yeah, we can even cast some of the stars of The Departed.”
“Not Nicholson, he’s way too expensive.  Hmm, what about Marky-Mark?”

The film’s story centers around nightclub manager Bobby Green (Joaquin Phoenix) whose lifestyle is at odds with his father (Robert Duvall) and brother (Mark Wahlberg) who are hard-nosed NY cops.  When his brother is put in charge of a taskforce to clean up the drugs in the city Bobby is forced to examine his life and choose between his family and his friends and business partners.

What you expect is what you get.  Phoenix acts moody, crazy, and looks like he needs a good night sleep.  Wahlberg is a tough and stand-up guy (sadly without the humor of his Departed character), Duvall is the hardboiled but loving father, and Eva Mendes is the girlfriend (or more accurate – the whining eye-candy).

The story is good though not great and the incident that forces Bobby to help his father and brother is well executed (although I would have liked to have seen more time spent on the fallout).  The film also includes several sequences which are both engaging and compelling including a most memorable car chase and a tour and an escape from a drug house.

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• Title: Eastern Promises
• IMDB: link

The film begins with two deaths and one birth.  A father and son brutally murder a customer in a barbershop.  Across London a 14 year-old prostitute (Sarah-Jeanne Labrosse) dies as she gives birth to a baby girl.  These two events are both traced back to the head (Armin Mueller-Stahl) of one of the city’s most powerful Russian crime families and his son (Vincent Cassel).

When a midwife (Naomi Watts) begins an investigation into the girl’s life she finds only darkness and death which put her, the child, and her loved ones in danger when the organization’s newest and deadliest member (Viggo Mortensen) is sent to retrieve the girl’s diary, protect the family’s secrets, and clean up the mess.

There’s much to appreciate here in a film where almost all of the performances are purposefully understated and controlled.  Even if the film doesn’t live up the high expectations of A History of Violence, there is plenty to enjoy including one of the most brutal fight sequences in recent memory between a naked Mortensen and a pair of Russian goons.

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