Alternate Best Actor 2007: Joaquin Phoenix in We Own the Night

Joaquin Phoenix did not receive an Oscar nomination for portraying Robert 'Bobby' Green in We Own the Night.

We Own the Night tells the story of a night club manager who finds himself in the center of a conflict between the police, including his brother and father, and the mob.

We Own the Night is one of those films that is not particularly bad, but it just fails to become anything special for the most part. The part of the film that seems trying to hardest to break out of this mediocrity is Joaquin Phoenix as Bobby Green the "bad" brother in a police family. Of course Bobby is not really a bad man he just happens to not be a star Captain in the police force like his brother Joe (Mark Wahlberg) or a deputy police chief like his father (Robert Duvall). Bobby's not a criminal himself, but in his position as a night club manager he does associate himself with many shady figures. Bobby also does not seem to spend his time in the most "noble" of pursuits as lives his life of pleasure with his girlfriend Amada (Eva Mendes) in and around the night club. Phoenix is good here simply by playing the part in a straight forward fashion. Bobby does not really hate his family or love crime or anything like that really through Phoenix's performance. Phoenix instead presents Bobby as just enjoying his life in seemingly a harmless enough way, even if the people he must interact with can be a bit questionable.

Phoenix is very good in his early scenes with Duvall and Wahlberg, because he does not play them as though Bobby does not have any real animosity towards them even though they make it well known that they are very disapproving of his life style. Phoenix shows Bobby as almost kind of just shrugging off this disapproval with laughter, although Phoenix does well to quietly allude to Bobby being actually hurt by this within his uncaring facade. The relationship does take a greater strain when Joe raids Bobby's club, and the police even harass and arrest him along with some Russian mobsters. Phoenix again is very good in portraying Bobby's anger very bluntly over his mistreatment by both the police and his brother. He's particularly good in the scene where he directly confronts Joe about it because although Phoenix maintains an honest indignation there is just touch of juvenile disdain. This might seem odd, but what Phoenix does in the scene is show the history between the two in the fight, as there is something informal about the hatred in the moment fitting for feuding brothers who still had a close childhood together.

Bobby is soon forced to make a choice after those Russian mobsters almost succeed in killing Joe and soon afterwards remark that they intend to kill Bobby's father next. Phoenix is very moving in the scene where he reacts to hearing about Joe being shot, as he succeeds in naturally revealing that even with the feuding Bobby never stopped being part of the family for a moment. This change could have seemed sudden but Phoenix in those earlier scenes so artfully planted the connection even when he was setting up the distance between them. Bobby chooses to help his family any way possible, even if it means putting his own life on the line to bring them down. Again this could have easily seemed to sudden but Phoenix just established Bobby's relationship with them so well, even though the writing was even fairly sparse, that it works. I especially love the scene where the brothers' father recognizes that he's done Bobby wrong, and they finally make amends. Phoenix and Duvall are terrific together as they find this earned warmth between the two as you feel the hardship that brought them to this point, along with the happiness of the two reconnecting.

The film sort of goes on a bit of an autopilot action revenge sort of thriller at this point, and does not do that all that well. Phoenix is forced into the position of running through these scenes at a very brisk pace without too much time to reflect on what it is that he's gone through. Luckily Phoenix does not lose his step within the film, and manages to convey Bobby's personal arc even within the mechanisms of the plot. Phoenix alludes to the old life a bit in the moments with Mendes, as Amada does not care for Bobby's new life which is basically hiding out from potential mob hits. Phoenix is great in these little scenes because he realizes the powerful longing in Bobby, not for his old party lifestyle, just a longing to be able to live a normal life with woman he loves. Phoenix is also surprisingly good in growing the relationship between Bobby and his family. Even with Mark Wahlberg being pretty underwhelming on his side of things, Phoenix manages to make something out the brothers finally coming together. With Duvall, who's considerably better than Wahlberg, Phoenix reveals such a genuine love between father and son.

The last act involves a great loss and the attempt to avenge that loss. Again not handled in a way that's anything remarkable, but Phoenix once again does so well to amplify whatever is to be found within the scenes. He makes the loss heartbreaking through what he established in the proceedings scenes, and quite simply through his gut wrenching reaction in the moment. On the seeing justice done side of things, I actually like how Phoenix plays it close to the chest here, and does not make Bobby suddenly a Punisher type figure. Phoenix keeps it honest to his character portraying an intense but subdued drive fitting for a normal man being pushed into a life that he never intended for himself. Phoenix is very effective though in still bringing out the palatable emotions of hatred but also sadness as he exacts justice for what has been done to his family. This is a very good performance by Phoenix as he manages to take the sometimes lacking material and keep it compelling. As Joaquin Phoenix characters go this is technically speaking a fairly straightforward one, but he never takes that as an excuse to be underwhelming here. He does not get lost in the plot as he always keeps the human element alive in the film by keeping the emotional core of the story alive through his remarkable portrayal.