We Own the Night

While there’s little doubt that James Gray has long since established himself as a talented (and thoroughly distinctive) filmmaker, We Own the Night – much like his first two efforts, Little Odessa and The Yards – suffers from an overly deliberate pace that ultimately prevents the viewer from fully connecting with the material. This is despite the inclusion of several genuinely thrilling sequences, with a third-act car chase (which transpires during a torrential downpour!) certainly the most obvious example of this. The film casts Joaquin Phoenix as Bobby Green, a flashy nightclub manager who is forced to question his hedonistic lifestyle after his cop brother (Mark Wahlberg) is injured by the Russian mafia. There’s never a point at which We Own the Night doesn’t feel like a typical Gray effort, as the movie possesses many of the thematic and stylistic touchstones that one has come to expect from the filmmaker. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, however; along with cinematographer Joaquin Baca-Asay, Gray has infused the proceedings with a moody visual sensibility that proves to be an ideal match for the equally somber screenplay. The increasingly episodic nature of the story – coupled with Phoenix’s complex, surprisingly layered performance – ensures that We Own the Night does improve substantially as it progresses, with the end result a film that fits comfortably within Gray’s canon of work.

**1/2 out of ****