We Own the Night
Director: James Gray
Year Released: 2007
Rating: 1.5
How's this for a contrived set-up: police chief Dad (Robert Duvall, back in Colors mode) has two sons - one's a dutiful cop (Mark Wahlberg, still trying to be a hard-ass) and the other's a screw-up drug user with ties to Russian dope peddlers (Joaquin Phoenix, looking ragged). Naturally, the good investigates the 'bad,' the 'bad' feels guilty about being 'bad' and becomes 'good' (somewhat begrudgingly). It's artificial and familiar and therefore not a picture that lingers in the mind - keeping with the mood, it looks gray and dismal, but the script needed to go further developing its characters.
