The star power shines bright in this cop film, with Joaquin Phoenix (“Walk the Line”) and Mark Wahlberg (“The Departed”) sharing top billing, but I expected more from the pairing of these two capable young actors who play brothers. There are occasional moments of entertaining friction between Wahlberg’s cop and Phoenix’s nightclub manager, but they never really move past that. Wahlberg’s 50-yard-stare does not mesh well with Phoenix’s mumbling, causing most of their interactions to be dry, unemotional affairs. While the second half of the film is better than the unfocused beginning, thanks to a few intense action scenes, the story just isn’t as compellingly told as can be found in other cop dramas.
Phoenix is Bobby Green, a manager at a Russian-owned nightclub in Brooklyn, New York, in 1988. He is also the brother and son, respectively, of cops Joe and Bert Groins (Robert Duvall) – a fact Bobby keeps hidden from his friends and employer. Bobby is approached by his family early on in the movie, to turn informer against the Russian family who owns the establishment. Bobby initially turns the request for help down, simply wanting to enjoy his wild lifestyle with his girlfriend Amada (Eva Mendes: “Hitch”). An unexpected, serious incident causes Bobby to re-think everything he took for granted in his life, drawing him closer to his family as he finally sees the criminal underworld for what it is.
“We Own the Night” obviously wishes to emulate the much superior cop-mob film “The Departed,” but falls short without the crisp dialogue, emotionally compelling performances or experienced director. The war between the drug dealers and cops have a few intense sequences, such as Bobby being trapped in a drug den during a police raid, but dumb mistakes by the main characters undercut the storyline. Mendes as the girlfriend proves to be little more than eye candy in the context of the story, alternating between unsatisfied or sultry during the whole film. Even Duvall can not elevate an average film beyond the material he is given.
While a decent ending raises moral questions of justice or revenge and shows the emotional toll that crime fighting has on law enforcement personnel, uneven performances and pacing cause “We Own the Night” to be only a shadow of more superior cop dramas.
Rated R for profanity, extreme adult situations, and extreme crude humor.
