For a cop drama set in 1988, it sure feels like a cop drama based in the seventies. As a matter of fact, it’s hard to tell why director James Gray didn’t set the whole thing in the seventies anyways, but maybe it was for fear of having to face up with a classic like The French Connection, as if he were trying to hide the fact that Gray is really making his own version of that movie, with a difference in theme, but a lot of stylistic similarities.
The way it starts off is interesting, and that has to be said. The plot saw two brothers, one who followed in the footsteps of the father by becoming a cop, another who went the almost opposite direction, manager of a nightclub and ending caught up in some risky drug dealing business. As the movie progresses, we find the good olf fashioned storylines ala Cain and Able and the prodigal son, the two brothers being jealous of one another, very distant and detatched, to the point where the one played by Mark Whalberg admits he only joined the police force to make daddy proud. The prodigal son storyline is the one that sees the other son, Joaquin Phoenix, join his family again and ultimately even join the police force, first for guilt, then for necessity and ultimately for revenge. It’s a shame that all the interesting concepts die out after a pretty spectacular car chase (the best since, probably, Ronin, perhaps even a little better than The Bourne Supremacy). It seems like the car chase conveniently separates the movie into two, the good part and the part where the filmmaker is rushing to get a movie going. To be honset, the signs that showed the film would eventually die down and become very cliche, start to show a little earlier, after the scene where Phoenix decides to go undercover to the place where the drug is being worked, which is probably the high point of the movie. After that scene, we can pretty much tell where Gray is going to take us.
The start of the film in fact is pretty good. The characters are introduced quite well, and there was obviously a lot of work put in for the beginning of the script. Eventually, it becomes easy to spot many weaknesses in the movie. But to notice them, perhaps it would be good to refer to a certain movie of the same kind but that is infinitely better than this but works in pretty much the same kind of way, The Departed. Here, the script was solid, strong, the kind of script that is easy to work with, but the same kind where there is so much in it that it is then up to the filmmaker to make it all come out well (of course when the director in question is Scorsese, apart from the few exceptions, there is no question). One of the things that came across well in that movie, was the witty dialogue with its biting well timed humour that provided comic relief but always kept you on the edge of your seat. There is no such thing in this film that is profoundly serious, and opposes any chance of comic relief with melodrama, which further makes this film a very ordinary cop movie.
I would not blame the actors in this occasion. The casting is well done. Robert Duvall is always a good choice, he always fills the shoes of his characters in a comfortable and mature way. It is the casting of the brothers that is absolutely spot on. Joaquin Phoenix always plays the character of the rebellious and even spoiled kid well, we know that from Gladiator and even Walk the Line. Mark Whalberg doesn’t do half as much as his ‘brother’, but he is solid and comfortably strong after his Academy Award nomination for his role in the Departed. The characters they portray do not seem so loyal to their introductions. The most messing comes with the character of Joaquin Phoenix. It’s hard to ever believe he could go so surely from being a night club manager to a cop in just a few days, and carrying on with his decision of staying in the police force is even more surprising; it would have been more genuine had he done something like that to spite his brother, but by the end, it seems like they are both proud of each other and love each other so much. The nature of the characters in fact stops being realistic, once again, after that car chase. It’s just not believable that Joaquin Phoenix would go from being a sissy junkie to being the hero of the day. Mark Whalberg should have played a bigger part in the ending, that would have made a lot more realistic sense. But of course, in cop movies the likes we have all seen time and time again, revenge is what counts, and of course the guy who sees his father get killed is the guy that is gonna want to kill that guy back.
Disappointing is what this film is. There should have been another movie in there, with another plot, less filled with cliches and same old bullshit. Hollywood never seems to get the brother themed plots right, to see those you have to check out independent cinema. Then again, that’s why we have independent cinema, sometimes we wanna see things as they are, and we would like to pleasure the surprise of seeing something that would vaguely remind us of our lives on the big screen. We certainly don’t get real life characters in this movie, and the whole thing gets lost in its own stylistic confusion, to the point where it seems we can’t locate the time setting of the movie. A few scenes here and there carry some weight. But the film in its entirety is nothing special.
Once again, however, I have to say something about Joaquin Phoenix. He feels like such a mature and good actor, that it’s a shame he stopped to do…whatever he is doing now, and what in the world is he doing now.
WATCH FOR THE MOMENT – Joaquin Phoenix is doing his undercover assignment. The drug dealers get him a taste of the drugs. He starts to get nervous. Good tension.