We Own The Night

Director James Gray creates a story staring Joaquin Phoenix as Bobby (Grusinksy) Green, Eva Mendes as Amada Juarez, Mark Wahlberg as Joseph Grusinsky, and Robert Duvall as chief Burt Grusinsky about a night club manager, Bobby, in New York in the 80’s who is forced to choose sides when the Russian mafia shoots his brother, Joseph, after he leads a raid on the night club Bobby manages. Bobby is forced to choose a side in the war between the cops and the drug dealers after nearly losing his brother and leaning that his father is next. We Own the Night is a great crime/drama/thriller, the plot was original enough to keep you guessing what comes next, although with the cops and the mafia it sort of resembled the Godfather. The plot dragged and even though it was unpredictable, it resembled every other cop/mafia movie. The actors did a great job playing their characters Joaquin Phoenix steals the show with his passionate character. There are many scenes where Phoenix shows the complexity of his character by fighting what is right and wrong. The actors did the best they could with the movie they were given. The stars really carried the movie. The movie was a little too long and some unimportant parts could have been left out to make the movie shorter and not as dragged out. Overall I think the movie was good, it created a story that I had never realized before. I enjoyed every minute of the movie even the dragged on plot. I got what I expected from this movie and even though I wouldn’t go to the movies to watch it again, I will probably buy it when it comes out to DVD.