In We Own the Night Joaquin Phoenix plays Bobby Green, a young
man who has turned his back on his family, going as far as
changing his last name and concealing any links he has with New
Yorks finest. He is the manager of the popular El Caribe, the
legendary Russian-owned nightclub in Brooklyn. But Bobby is about
to go head to head with his brother and her when they become
the target of the Russian mob.
From .co.uk
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In We Own the Night, Joaquin Phoenix (
/gp/search?search-alias=dvd&field-keywords=joaquin%20phoenix+-ntsc
), whose eyes burn with sullen anger even when he's looking at
the woman he loves, plays Bobby Green, a nightclub manager in the
1980s who gets caught between his blood family he tried to leave
behind--a long line of officers--and his chosen family of
friends and business partners, who turn out to be drug dealers.
His her (Robert Duvall (
/gp/search?search-alias=dvd&field-keywords=robert%20duvall+-ntsc
)) and brother (Mark Wahlberg (
/gp/search?search-alias=dvd&field-keywords=mark%20wahlberg+-ntsc
)) want Bobby to help their investigation, but Bobby
resists--until the conflict takes a brutal turn. Writer/director
James Gray wears his influences on his sleeve; he's clearly seen
every movie that Martin Scorsese (
/gp/search?search-alias=dvd&field-keywords=martin%20scorsese+-ntsc
) and Francis Ford Cla (
/gp/search?search-alias=dvd&field-keywords=francis%20ford%20cla+-ntsc
) ever made and aspires to follow in their footsteps.
The familiarity of the movie's territory dilutes its impact, but
the plot of We Own the Night remains unpredictable, the
performances have a clean vitality, and Gray's moody visual style
brings some life to the genre. Phoenix (Walk the Line) dives into
his role, sifting through layers of guilt and familial
resentment; Wahlberg and Duvall play parts they've essentially
played a dozen times, but do so with commitment and integrity.
Also featuring Eva Mendes (Ghost Rider) as Bobby's devoted
girlfriend, who questions just how much she'll have to give up
for him. --Bret Fetzer
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Synopsis
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Director James Gray (The Yards) posits two distinctly different
brothers--Joseph (Mark Wahlberg) and Bobby Grusinsky (Joaquin
Phoenix)--as the central characters in this crime-infested
thriller. Joseph and Bobby inhabit two conflicting worlds in late
1980s New York, the former becoming a cop and the latter running
a nightclub. Bobby spends his evenings in a den of iniquity,
indulging in drugs, alcohol, and gambling, and his attractive
girlfriend Amada (Eva Mendes) is never far from his arm. Their
two worlds meet when the her of the two men, Burt (Robert
Duvall), who is also a cop, gets together with Joseph to ask
Bobby for information about a patron of the club named Vadim
(Alex Veadov). Vadim is the nephew of the club's owner, and also
a dangerous member of the Russian criminal underworld. Bobby
sides with Vadim, and the tension in Gray's
brother-versus-brother potboiler reaches melting point as Joseph
goes after both his sibling and his Russian foe.
Wahlberg, Phoenix, and Duvall all deliver high-calibre
performances throughout, and Gray suffuses the plot with enough
twists and turns to provide a few surprises. New York City is
perfectly utilised as a backdrop to the action, and
cinematographer Joaquin Baca-Asay manages to get the balance
between moody, atmospheric s and explosive action sequences
just right. We Own the Night ultimately resembles an
old-fashioned cop film with a little Scorsese-like drama thrown
in for good measure, and is likely to gain a following among
movie fans seeking retro crime thrills.
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