[MOVIES] We Own The Night

We Own the Night is a crime drama film written and directed by James Gray and starring Joaquin Phoenix, Mark Wahlberg, Eva Mendes and Robert Duvall. It is the third film directed by Gray, and the second film to feature Joaquin Phoenix and Mark Wahlberg acting together, the first being The Yards, which was also directed by Gray. The film's title comes from the motto of the NYPD's Street Crimes Unit, which disbanded in 2002.

The film premiered May 25, 2007 at the Cannes Film Festival. It was released October 12, 2007 in the United States and Canada. It was released in the United Kingdom on December 14, 2007 and was released in Australia on February 28, 2008.

PLOT

The film is set in Brooklyn, New York from November 1988 through early April 1989. Bobby Green (Joaquin Phoenix) is the manager of a nightclub in Brighton Beach that is frequented by Russian gangster and drug lord Vadim Nezhinski (Alex Veadov). Bobby has distanced himself from his police chief father Burt Grusinsky (Robert Duvall) and his police captain brother Joseph Grusinsky (Mark Wahlberg), preferring to remain on the sidelines and enjoy a hedonistic life with his girlfriend Amada (Eva Mendes). When police forces led by Joseph make a raid on Bobby's nightclub, hoping to net Vadim, Bobby refuses to cooperate. The incident strains his relationship with his father and brother even more, to the point that he and Joseph exchange blows.

The police are unsuccessful in capturing Vadim, who decides to retaliate by having Joseph killed. The assassination attempt is botched and Joseph survives, although he suffers a shot to the head that leaves him hospitalized for months. Bobby visits his brother in the hospital and, undergoing a change of heart, resolves to help his father and the police in their fight against Vadim. Despite Burt's apprehension, Bobby works undercover for the police inside Vadim's drug-smuggling operation.

During a white-knuckle car chase in a severely blinding thunderstorm, Burt is killed by Vadim's men. Joseph and Bobby, who has taken the police exam and become an official member of the force, work together to bring Vadim down. The highlight being that Bobby personally kills Vadim in a raid. The film ends with Bobby graduating and becoming a full-time police officer.

SOURCE

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/We_Own_the_Night

http://www.21cineplex.com/we-own-the-night,1929.htm