James Gray’s next movie We Own the Night involves the Russian mob and two brothers on opposite sides of the law. It sounds a lot like the sort of thing we’ve seen done before. But what’s so interesting about it is the cast, which almost every week now keeps getting better.
Variety says the newest addition is Christopher Walken, who steps into a cast already sporting Joaquin Phoenix, Mark Wahlberg, and Eva Mendes. My feelings are still mixed on Wahlberg. For awhile I was his biggest defender, but after a few years of Truth About Charlies I’ve soured on him. But seeing Joaquin and Chris playing off each other in a gritty film like We Own the Night is bound to be… that’s a dream come true.
This is great news for Walken fans too, many of whom, like me, were probably getting sick of seeing him do nothing but repeated self-parody. Walken’s last really great work in my mind was in Spielberg’s Catch Me If You Can, where he played Leo’s beaten down father. Aside from that though, he’s been in comedies or forgettable actioners like The Rundown where his job was primarily to parody himself. At first it was funny, but by the third or fourth time seeing him do it, well it was starting to become a beating. Now he’s getting back to gritty drama, and whatever else We Own the Night turns out to be, for Walken fans it looks like its going to be a little bit of a relief.
