"We Own The Night" isn't what I thought it would be at first - another undercover cop movie. It's a pretty unique crime/drama with emphasis on the drama that depicts the aftermath of a police operation gone wrong. Joaquin Phoenix and Mark Wahlberg play two brothers whose lives have taken different turns, but who are brought back together when the Russian Mafia threatens to destroy their family.
Writer/director James Gray's movie is a tense and gripping affair. The characters are shaped well and embodied perfectly by the actors (although Mark Wahlberg is really just playing the quiet, aggressive guy that he's always playing once more). There's a pretty exciting car chase in there and a bugging operation that will make you cringe with fear for the main character.
That said, the movie isn't without its flaws. The first half drags on a bit, then it all goes too fast. Joaquin Phoenix' character becomes a policeman literally overnight and suddenly there's a concluding showdown, which comes out of nowhere and ends with a pretty unspectacular shootout. On top of that, most of the movie plays like a sequence of short episodes rather than one continuous story. Phoenix' character is too much in the focus of the story and the characters played by Eva Mendes and Mark Wahlberg just kind of enter and leave the plot without having too much of an impact on anything.
Make no mistake, though, this is one of the best gangster movies of 2007 (just after "Eastern Promises" and way ahead of "American Gangster"), although it is much closer in atmosphere to David Fincher's character-driven "Zodiac". And Joaquin Phoenix is so good, he was robbed of an Academy Awards nomination.
Writer/director James Gray's movie is a tense and gripping affair. The characters are shaped well and embodied perfectly by the actors (although Mark Wahlberg is really just playing the quiet, aggressive guy that he's always playing once more). There's a pretty exciting car chase in there and a bugging operation that will make you cringe with fear for the main character.
That said, the movie isn't without its flaws. The first half drags on a bit, then it all goes too fast. Joaquin Phoenix' character becomes a policeman literally overnight and suddenly there's a concluding showdown, which comes out of nowhere and ends with a pretty unspectacular shootout. On top of that, most of the movie plays like a sequence of short episodes rather than one continuous story. Phoenix' character is too much in the focus of the story and the characters played by Eva Mendes and Mark Wahlberg just kind of enter and leave the plot without having too much of an impact on anything.
Make no mistake, though, this is one of the best gangster movies of 2007 (just after "Eastern Promises" and way ahead of "American Gangster"), although it is much closer in atmosphere to David Fincher's character-driven "Zodiac". And Joaquin Phoenix is so good, he was robbed of an Academy Awards nomination.