We Own the Night

“We Own the Night,” starring Joaquin Phoenix, Mark Wahlberg, and Robert Duvall, is about family and life’s choices. Burt (Duvall) and his son Joseph (Wahlberg) are New York policemen, chasing a Russian drug dealer. Bobby (Phoenix), Burt’s other son, who has turned his back on his family and changed his name, manages a club for a Russian family. Bobby’s extreme and carefree lifestyle ultimately crashes around him when, after Joseph leads a raid on Bobby’s club, Joseph is shot in the face by someone Bobby knows. Wahlberg and Duvall are effective, but their roles are small; the movie is about Bobby and Phoenix, offering a less than stellar performance, seems to be sleepwalking through most of the film. Nonetheless, “We Own the Night” offers convincing drama and enough tension to keep the audience involved to the end. (10/12/07)