"We Own The Night" is set in the wild and wooly pre-Giuliani New York City, when criminals ruled the streets and cops were marked men.
At least that how it's pitched here by director James Gray ("The Yards"), who appears to be aiming for a Sydney Lumet vibe but ends up with a something that feels more like a 1930s Warner Bros. programmer about Al Capone's prohibition Chicago, right down to the story about brothers on opposite sides of the law.
Joaquin Phoenix stars as Bobby Grusinsky, a hard-partying nightclub manager who's changed his name in order to distance himself from his legendary police captain father (Robert Duvall), and his dad-pleasing, spit-and-polish brother (Mark Wahlberg).
There is a strained family reunion when a police investigation into cocaine trafficking puts Bobby's nightclub at the center of the department's attempt to bust the city's biggest and most dangerous cocaine-importing operation, controlled by a fearsome Russian mobster.
Bobby is asked to be an informant, which only widens the family rift. When the investigation turns violent, however, it also turns deeply personal, and Bobby is forced to choose a side.
A great deal rides on whether we buy into the Grusinskys as an actual family, but it's a stretch. Gray never provides the little resonant details that make them feel like dad, son, brother (and, obviously, they don't look like they're related).
On the other hand, the movie does have some tasty bits of throwback action. A highlight is a beautifully shot/edited rolling shootout between cops and gangsters in a rainstorm - confused drivers try to judge what is happening by watching muzzle flashes though a rain-streaked windshield.
When the bodies are sorted out, though, Gray wants us to feel the sting of loss, and it's just not there. The family story has become less interesting than the procedural, and a late-game detour into the evolving relationship between the brothers begins to feel like filler.
"We Own the Night" concedes this point by arranging a final showdown between Bobby and the sadistic gangster. It's another offbeat action sequence, this time a smoke-shrouded scene shot in the burning vegetation of a waterfront swamp, and another that prompts neither sadness nor satisfaction. *
Produced by Marc Butan, Joaquin Phoenix, Mark Wahlberg, Nick Wechsler, written and directed by James Gray, music by Wojciech Kilar, distributed by Columbia Pictures.
