We Own the Night

Making crime dramas look and feel as gritty as real life has become the norm in Hollywood recently, and the more they do the better they become. James Gray does a great job at directing this cast which includes Joaquin Phoenix, Mark Wahlberg and Robert Duvall, and with these three powerhouses the audience is shown how close the police have to get in order to close a case. With these three commanding performances it isn’t hard for the rest of the cast to give their best, and it shows from beginning to end.
Bobby Green who manages a hot New York nightclub and is also related to two of the best cops in the city’s narcotics division, but when his brother shot and his father killed he must decide where his loyalties lie. This story plays on the old saying "blood is thicker than water" and does it so well that at times its hard to believe it’s a work of fiction. Phoenix and Wahlberg play wonderfully off of each other, the tension that they show as fighting siblings is so strong that you expect them to come to blows at any point. As tenacious as the characters are in this story the city itself comes across as a living, breathing entity with characteristics that make it just as much a player in the narrative.
This film is as gritty and riveting as "Departed" and with all the action and drama of any of the gangster films that have come out recently. With the performance that Phoenix turns out he again shows that he is able to mold himself into what ever character a director needs, and it will be interesting to see where he’ll go next. I didn’t expect very much from this film, I figured that it was going to be a "Departed" want to be, but I was so wrong. It has a storyline that’s all its own, and even though its shot in the same style we’re given a complete different tale about the criminal element in a big city.