We Own the Night"" was the motto of the New York Police Department during their 1980s war on drugs. The film that bares that title disagrees with its message; ""We Own the Night"" depicts the '80s battle for New York's streets where ownership of the night changes nightly.
In the film, Joaquin Phoenix and Mark Wahlberg play brothers at different ends of the law. Phoenix plays Bobby as the manager of a seedy nightclub who either doesn't know or doesn't care that his club is being used as the center of a drug ring. Bobby's brother Joe (Wahlberg) tries to force his brother to acknowledge the dealings operating under his nose. After a bust of Bobby's club, Joe is attacked in retaliation, and Bobby is forced to take sides between his brother's cause and his employers' interests.
""Night"" mixes crime drama with family
drama, as Bobby must choose which family he wishes to help - the Russian crime family which owns his club, treats him like a son and now wants him in their family business, or his biological family, Joe and father Burt (Robert Duvall), who have treated him like a pariah. Phoenix's understated portrayal holds the film together as long as it can.
Wahlberg and Duvall play convincing yet one-dimensional cops, but it's a testament to their acting ability that even some of their less-interesting work to date is still worth watching. Special mention should be made of Eva Mendes, who, up until now, has been lost in trash like ""Ghost Rider"" and ""2 Fast 2 Furious,"" but deftly portrays Phoenix's long-suffering girlfriend, Amada, teetering between affection for her lover and horror at the mess he's gotten himself into.
Writer-director James Gray specializes in crime dramas, and his flair for the genre shows up on the screen. His shot choices, especially during a particularly gripping car chase scene and some of the heavier dramatic scenes, are always appealing, when in the hands of a less-talented director they would have been boring. Gray's unorthodox camera angles and focus ensure everything on-screen is always visually interesting.
His script doesn't always hold to the same standard, however. Though the first two acts of ""Night"" are suspenseful and entertaining, the third act reveals some plot holes and descends into action movie clichés. It seemed inevitable that
""We Own the Night"" would culminate in some sort of action-packed shootout, but the ending might have worked better had Gray decided to take it a different direction.
""We Own the Night"" will inevitably be unfairly compared to ""The Departed,"" another film about choosing between opposing sides in a war. However, ""Night"" is a closer relative to ""L.A. Confidential"" and ""The Untouchables,"" films that measure drama and action in more equal proportion. ""Night"" is worth seeing, but comparing most films to one made by Martin Scorsese means the challenger will almost always come up short.
The phrase ""We Own the Night"" is not meant as a statement in the film, but rather a challenge to the drug-peddling antagonists and heroic cops to fight for the upper hand in the campaign against drugs. The film is well-crafted and interesting, but one can't help but wonder what might have happened had they focused entirely on the soldiers rather than the soldiers and their battles.
