We Own the Night

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How often have we seen a car chase in a cop thriller? It's a mark of the artistry in James Gray's austere, powerhouse drama that he finds a new way to film this generic staple. The camera basically stays with Joaquin Phoenix as all hell breaks out around him: a car pulls up alongside, there's gunfire, broken glass, confusion; has his girlfriend been hit? What about the car in front, carrying his father? Vision is impaired by a heavy rain-storm and the dominant sound is the thud of the windscreen wipers. Panic, helplessness, confusion, this is the sharp end.

It's a great set-piece, but it's only one of three equally exciting and audacious sequences. Better yet, each is absolutely integral to the development of the story and the revelation of character. Taken together, they move We Own The Night into the highest caliber of thriller - it's a more sustained and probing film, in my book, than either Eastern Promises or Michael Clayton.

Phoenix is the prodigal son - a nightclub manager in New York City in the late 80s - who returns home to the fold, eventually earning the respect of his father and his brother - both of them detectives in the NYPD. This redemption is hard won, accomplished through suffering and personal sacrifice, and at the end we find ourselves pondering how much this sympathetic, strangely innocent soul has lost in the process.

When the movie begins, "Bobby Green" has already carved out an identity for himself. He's the main man at the el Caribe, a thriving hotspot bankrolled by a gregarious Russian businessman who treats him like a son. His loyal lieutenant is also his best friend. And he's crazy in love with his hot Puerto Rican girlfriend Amada (Eva Mendes). Everything is on the up.

The Grusinskys are a different tribe: Burt (Robert Duvall) is a veteran cop who can't stomach what his younger son is doing with his life. Joseph (Mark Wahlberg), the elder, is the white sheep, quickly rising through the ranks and newly assigned to lead a narcotics task force that has one of Bobby's regular customers in its sights. When Joseph is hospitalized, fortunate to have survived a point-blank shooting, Bobby realizes his old man will be targeted next and agrees to infiltrate the drugs operation. The bad guys haven't guessed that Green and Grusinsky are family.

Now, you don't have to be a pop-savvy Taranteenie to recognize that Gray's story might have made a serviceable vehicle for the likes of James Cagney and Spencer Tracy back in the 1930s. If you think you can guess where it's headed, you're very probably right. (And if you object that it seems far-fetched, I wouldn't disagree with you there either.) But Gray takes these somewhat soiled and contrived narrative elements and shapes them into a plangent suspense thriller that's archetypal, inexorable, and subtly subversive.

Phoenix starred with Wahlberg in Gray's "The Yards" some years back, and watching him in these pictures you appreciate what a great film noir actor he would have made. There's something wounded about him, a vulnerability that's attractive but can also turn rancid. He knows something integral is broken but he desperately needs to be fixed. Eva Mendes makes a strong case that Amada is the answer to his dreams (anyone's dreams, for that matter); she's tender, sexy and assertive, ready to fight his corner if only he'll stick beside her. But in the end blood begets blood: you can't choose your family or escape from where you came from. There will be a closing of the ranks.

Tom Charity
Tom.charity@lovefilm.com

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We Own The Night

ValleyJohn [Highly rated reviewer] , 12/03/2008

I must review over 150 movies a year . Sometimes , when i am on a bad run , it can become a chore . But what makes sitting through another laugh less Will Ferrell movie a little more acceptable is when an unexpected gem comes along that blows you away. We own the night is one such gem.

Bobby Green has turned his back on the family business. The popular manager of El Caribe, the legendary Russian-owned nightclub in Brooklyn's Brighton Beach, he has changed his last name and concealed his connection to a long line of distinguished New York cops. For Bobby, every night is a party, as he greets friends and customers or dances with his beautiful Puerto Rican girlfriend, Amada, in a haze of cigarette smoke and disco music. But it's 1988, and New York City's drug trade is escalating. Bobby tries to keep a friendly distance from the Russian gangster who is operating out of the nightclub--a gangster who is being targeted by his brother, Joseph, an up-and-coming NYPD officer, and his father, Burt, the legendary deputy chief of police.

I'm not sure what was released the same week at We own the night but it must have been great for this to have slipped under the radar . I don't remember it getting a great deal of publicity or even a lot of reviewers column inches but it sure as hell should have!

Joaquin Phoenix is fantastic as Bobby Green .A man so stuck between a rock and a hard place that his life is in tatters . consumed by grief and suffering an intolerable amount of stress this emotional performance is of the highest quality . There are several scenes that Joaquin manages to get right into the skin of Bobby . Thanks to this talented actor , you feel his hate and anger , his frustration and his grief and that is something not many leading men can manage to do .

There are also good performances from Eva Mendes and the Legendary Robert Duvall.

Mark Wahlberg is always expressionless when acting and the same goes for his portrayal of Joseph . He's a little too one dimensional but because he picks his films well his inabilities as an actor seem to be forgotten .

Considering this film is two hours long it seemed to fly by and if anything could have benefited with maybe another half an hour .

There are two scenes especially that stand out for me. One is when Bobby confronts his brother after his is taken in when his club is raided and the other is the car chase scene when his father gets shot . Both are compelling as they are shocking.

The closest i can compare this film to is The Departed . The subject matter is very similar but i liked this better . It's grittier and has a sound track that will bring back many great memories if you were an eighties teenager like me.

If i had to criticise this film for anything it is that the final showdown with the Russians was a little bit of an anti climax considering how edgy the rest of the film was. .

This is soon forgotton when in a moving final scene the two brothers tell each other exactly how they feel .

A fitting climax to a brilliant film.

9 out of 10

We Own the Night

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