The story is shopworn, but not without dramatic potential: Joaquin Phoenix and Mark Wahlberg play brothers on the opposite-ish sides of the law Joseph (Wahlberg) has followed in the footsteps of their father (Robert Duvall) and joined the NYPD while Bobby (Phoenix) rebels by running a seedy nightclub. With a drug dealer inching into Bobby’s territory, he’s forced to reconsider his loyalties.
With this third work, Gray sets all inhibitions aside and begins confidently with a series of black-and-white cop photos set to melancholy saxophone followed by the image of uninhibitedly sexy party girl Amada (Eva Mendes) pleasuring herself on a ’70s-style gold couch. Her boyfriend Bobby (Joaquin Phoenix) enters the frame and caresses her thigh, then her breast there’s a cut to them waiting to kiss, with Amada’s tongue fluttering in the air, then a cut of Bobby pulling down her top, so that one of her breasts pops out?all set to Blondie’s “Heart of Glass.” This arousing vision of a warm erotic paradise, unrepentantly heightened by the use of drugs, haunts the rest of the movie, which deals with raw loss, the chill of betrayal, and the opposing institutions of the mob and the police force.
The good brother, played with sullen intensity by Mark Wahlberg, is decorated New York City policeman Joseph Grusinsky. The bad brother — well, he’s not really all that bad — is the playboy-ish Bobby Green, played at first with devil-may-care glee by Joaquin Phoenix, later with a sullen intensity that goes way beyond Wahlberg’s character. Bobby, who tells his disapproving deputy police chief father (Robert Duvall) that he has changed his last name to something easier to pronounce, runs the swanky El Caribe nightclub in an old Brooklyn movie palace that’s owned by kindly Russian immigrants. Bobby is in love with vivacious club dancer Amada Juarez (Eva Mendes), toys with drugs and knows a lot of unsavory characters, although he isn’t part of their illicit schemes that usually involve drugs and murder.
Star(s) to watch : Eva Mendes (”Once Upon a Time in Mexico”, “2 Fast 2 Furious”, “Ghost Rider”, “Urban Legends: Final Cut”, “Exit Wounds”) as Amanda Juarez, Mark Wahlberg (”The Big Hit”, “The Italian Job”, “The Departed”) as Joseph Grusinsky, & Joaquin Phoenix (”Signs”, “Gladiator”) as Bobby Green.
Genre : Drama, Gangster.
Release date : October 12, 2007
Rating : 7/10
Official website : http://www.sonypictures.com/movies/weownthenight/
Poster : http://movies-update.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/05/we_own_the_night-200×300.jpg
Trailer :
