Review of We Own the Night (2007) by Jenni — 21 Jan 2010

"I don't need any more guns in my life, that's for sure. But you should have one to be safe. It's better to be judged by twelve than carried by six.".

I haven't seen any other films by James Gray, but I've heard he directs films very similar to We Own the Night. This thriller has a lot to offer, with the tense situations that we get from good thrillers, and action packed gun fights and car chases.

SUMMARY:

Bobby (Joaquin Phoenix) manages a nightclub owned by an elderly Russian, Marat Bujayev (Moni Moshonov). Bobby comes from a family of cops - his father is Bert Grusinsky (Robert Duvall) and his brother is Jospeh (Mark Wahlberg), and they aer leading a war against the drug dealers of Brooklyn. They are after Marat's nephew, Vadim (Alex Veadow), who is pretty much the kingpin in the drug business. Bobby now must choose a side, being torn torn between loyalty to his family and loyalty to his dangerous associates.

REVIEW:

This story everything I wanted in it. All the elements were great, and it wasn't predictable. Gray wrote this himself, and the screenplay is anything but dull - the dialogue is good, and the script is very original. I thought the characters were interesting, and there was even a rivalry between the brothers Bobby and Joseph. But as I said earlier, this isn't predictable. There were a lot of twists I didn't see coming.

Outstanding performances. Joaquin Phoenix was sensational, playing all the aspects of Bobby well, with his out-of-control attitude, to his sadness. Mark Wahlberg was wonderful. Robert Duvall's performance was great, and Eva Mendes who plays Bobby's grilfriend, who gets caught up in the whole cop-drugs war, was just excellent.

The visuals were ok. I thought the cinematography was very nice at some scenes. The film also features some action scenes, but not a lot. My guess is around 3 of them. There are a shootouts, but the car chase scene was good. After reading a review from a critic who stated that this film had "potentially, the best car chase in the history of cinema", I couldn't wait to winess this car chase. I think that critic was wrong. It wasn't the best. There's a bit of shaky camerawork, and I thought it was a bit too short. However, it was still a tense and fun ride - there were nice special effects, and some of the stuff that happens during the chase is just magnificent.

Overall, this is a tense and dramatic thriller. It does drag for a while, but I loved it. Fans of cops and gangster thrillers should have fun with this. It's the type of thriller that keeps you entertained the whole way.