Bobby Green has turned his back on the family business. The popular manager of El Caribe, the legendary Russian-owned nightclub in Brooklyn's Brighton Beach, he has changed his last name and concealed his connection to a long line of distinguished New York cops. For Bobby, every night is a party, as he greets friends and customers or dances with his beautiful Puerto Rican girlfriend, Amada, in a haze of cigarette smoke and disco music. But it's 1988, and New York City's drug trade is escalating. Bobby tries to keep a friendly distance from the Russian gangster who is operating out of the nightclub--a gangster who is being targeted by his brother, Joseph, an up-and-coming NYPD officer, and his father, Burt, the legendary deputy chief of police.

We Own the Night was the kind of movie that had everything going for it, great cast, and a good idea and story but in the end was soured by just a few elements whether it be directing or pacing. The movie reaches a point where you expect a climax, it leads up to it and you get the climax that you would expect and then the movie goes on for about another hour. And when you reach that second ending, it not nearly as good as the first one was or could have been. That’s not to say the movie isn’t really good because it is, the fact that the movie could almost be seen in two parts with two climaxes does at times make it drag a little bit and slows the movie down. It’s an interesting idea that just wasn’t done to well, you could almost look at it as a two act play but to make it work the second act’s ending would have needed to be better than the first which it wasn’t and this is why it became a little bit of a letdown.

While probably not completely unique the idea of two brothers who find themselves in completely different worlds that are about to collide adds for some terrific drama. Joaquin Phoenix is living the fast and easy life, while not a drug dealer or a criminal he associates with them every day and even partakes a little himself. He has rebelled from the life and tradition of his family and he can’t face his family anymore because he is no longer truly feels like one of them. While Mark Wahlberg’s character has lived up to everything their father would have wanted from his son’s, he is the hard nosed police officer that works hard and plays later. The two brothers still love each other but their different lives make it impossible for them to connect with each other anymore. This is an old fable even told in the bible about the lost and forgotten son finally returning home who must find himself as well as his family once more told in a modern landscape of Russian mafia and circa 1980’s New York.

The first act so to speak is showing how the two brothers have varied so far apart in their lifestyles as well as who they have chosen to be. The second act is them reconciling together and coming together as a family once more. The problem is I don’t think that Joaquin Phoenix’s character would have made such a 180 degree turn as he does in the movie. There is a point of vengeance that I am sure he wants and the path he takes to get it does seem plausible but in the end he changes everything he was to become something he never wanted to be. That might be why the second act doesn’t work as well as the first.

You couldn’t ask for a better cast of actors than what you get. It reminds me a lot of last years all-star ensemble of a cast in the Departed. But with that cast it was like the cast of pretty boys, the actors who could be glamorous and with We Own the Night it was like the cast of common men that you could believe as your next-door neighbor. Both Joaquin Phoenix and Mark Wahlberg aren’t your typical glamorous Hollywood actors they are flawed men who fit there roles very well. You can see them as your average everyday joe’s, just your run of the mil kind of guys not to mention they are both terrific actors. Robert Duvall adds that age and experience to the cast, he comes off as the gruff fatherly figure that fits so well with the two brothers. And Eva Mendez rounds it out to add some sex and sex appeal to the whole thing. They work so well together that they smooth out a lot of the rough points in the movie. I mean the movie is very good, even if it does drag a little bit and lose its way for a little bit in the middle of the film.

Grade: B-