Sony Pictures' We Own the Night Photo

We Own the Night

Starring: Joaquin Phoenix, Mark Wahlberg, Robert Duvall, Eva Mendes, Tony Musante

Directed by: James Gray

RS: 3of 4 Stars Average User Rating: 3of 4 Stars

2007 Sony/Columbia Drama

Booed at the Cannes film festival (always a sign that a movie has good energy), James Gray's pulverizing crime drama is unafraid to put its passions right out where it's easy to mock them. We Own the Night is defiantly, refreshingly unhip. Set in Brooklyn in the late 1980s, the film proudly wears its heart on its sleeve. Joaquin Phoenix is electrifying and then some as club manager Bobby Green (changed from Grusinsky), a drug-happy party boy with a sizzling Puerto Rican girlfriend, Amada (Eva Mendes, for whom sizzle comes naturally), and a brother, Joseph (Mark Wahlberg, recessive and riveting), who wants to put him out of business. Joseph is a cop, as is their deputy-chief dad, Burt (Robert Duvall in full grit). But in this contest of who owns the night, it's not the police or the Russian mob that squeezes Bobby in a vise. It's fate. That's right, a concept as old as the Greeks. Bobby has little room in his life for his disapproving brother and father until a pro forma raid on his club places his family at risk. Everyone's life changes, and not for the better.

With long takes and overhead shots that reduce humans to playthings of destiny, Gray's reach is daringly Shakespearean. For some critics, it's just conventional TV pap with delusions of grandeur and a lazy regard for period details. Or even more risible: fascist propaganda for a police state. You be the judge. Gray's first two films, Little Odessa and The Yards, threw me at first. It might take a second or third viewing to see what he's after. It's worth the effort. The Queens-born Gray is a certified maverick. Some say he's the basis for Billy Walsh, the take-no-prisoners director on his friend Wahlberg's Entourage HBO series. Does it all work? Hardly. Gray's excesses can be infuriating. But watch him pit his characters against outrageous fortune, thrillingly disguised as a white-knuckled car chase in the rain, and you know you're in the presence of a born filmmaker.

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Peter Travers

(Posted: Oct 18, 2007)

Your Turn

Give us your review of
We Own the Night

Review 1 of 2

1of 4 Stars

I gave it one star because it's the lowest choice that I have. This movie was a crock. I enjoy a good comedy, but this wasn't supposed to be one. It was the most unbelievable stories that I've seen outside of Shrek, Monster's Inc or maybe Nemo. Guys you gotta do better then this. I had thought this was going to be a good movie when I discovered who the main actors were. I've seen them all do very good work. This piece of crap blew me away until I noticed that two of the main actors were also the producers. The only piece of advice I have for actors/aspiring producers is to stick with acting. Walberg still hasn't done enough to qualify himself as a "good" actor. He's done well in a couple of movies but he plays the same character, brooding, hot tempered and always with a clenched fist. I'm tired of this character, try something else next time, pleeeeease.

As for Robert Duvall and Eva Mendes, either you were made an offer that you couldn't turn down or you don't know good material when you see it. I was really surprised and disappointed with Mr. Duvall - I could always depend on seeing something good if you're name was associated with it. Too bad you had to do this.

Feb 16, 2008 10:05:16

Review 2 of 2

1of 4 Stars

This movie seems like it was written by an eleven year old who had never broken the law in his life. Despite the fact that this movie was lame, it was also totally unbelieveable. anyone who has ever sold a GRAM before could tell you this scenario was so unreal words can't describe it. All Star cast who must have owed someone a favor or something. Mark Wahlberg's rising star is shot. This was more like a DONNY Wahlberg movie. On a scale of one to ten, I would give it a negative one million and that is being generous

Feb 16, 2008 02:04:14

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