Film

We Own The Night

Cert: 15

Description: Joseph Grusinsky and his brother Bobby are two sides of the same coin. While Joe has dutifully abided by the wishes of his domineering father Burt, and followed the old man into the ranks of the New York City police force, Bobby has chosen to move into the nightclub business, running a Manhattan joint where drug dealers such as Vadim Nezhinski hold sway. When Joe is gunned down by the Russian Mob, Bobby is forced to choose sides in the spirally drug wars.

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Dir: James Gray.

Cast: Eva Mendes, Joaquin Phoenix, Mark Wahlberg, Robert Duvall

Country: US.

Year: 2007.

Duration: 117mins

Crime is a family affair

Bad one: Joaquin Phoenix and Eva Mendes

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By Derek Malcolm
13 Dec 2007

This irritatingly melodramatic but still watchable thriller from James Gray follows the contrasting footsteps of two brothers, one good, one bad.

The good guy (Mark Wahlberg) has followed the footsteps of his gruff father (Robert Duvall) into the New York City police force. The other (Joaquin Phoenix) manages a Brooklyn night club where he parties a lot and gets mixed up with nasty Ruskie drug dealers.

Raiding the dive, the good brother gets shot in the face and a family crisis ensues.

This is the best part of the film, since Gray, who made Little Odessa, gets more realism out of family relationships than he does out of the thriller element, which has the Russian mobsters failing to check the bad brother's connections with the police before imparting their secrets to him. They were surely more sensible than that, even in 1988.

There are other illogical plot turns, too. But Duvall is as impressive as ever and Eva Mendes is a sexy if underwritten presence throughout as the bad boy's girl.